
Class ^alB 

Book 'E.S,(c . 

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COROilGHT DEFOSIE 



DICKERSON'S ART HISTORY SERIES. 



••• 



Our Country 

HISTORIC AND PICTURESOUE. 



A COMPLETE STORY OF ITS DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESS 

FROM THE FIRST DISCOVERY BY THE NORTHMEN 

TO THE PRESENT TIME. 

EMBELLISHED BY 
MANY HUNDRED FINE ENGRAVTNGS, 

Illustrative of War f Historic Incidents, 



Grandeur of American Scenery. 



Life-like Portraits of Men who built the Nation, reproduced in 

Colors from Oil Paintings now owned by the 

Government at Washington. 



By Tryon Edwards, D. D., 

AUTHOR OF "light FOR THE day" " THE FAMILY TREASURY " "DICTIONARY 
OF THOUGHTS," ETC. 




F. "B. 'Dicker son Company, 
Detroit, Mich. 




COPYRIGHTED BY 

r. B. DICKERSON COAVPANY 

1891. 

ALL RIGHTS RnSERV'ED. 







PREFACE, 



OF all studies, that of History is one of the most interesting and important. 
It satisfies a natural and laudable curiosity as to what has taken place in 
the world, and makes some amends for the shortness of life by enabling us to 
live over, in thought, the days and scenes of the past, and to know, as by a 
second experience, the life and labors of those who have gone before us. So 
strong and universal is the desire to know about the times that are gone, as to 
their persons, events, and progressive changes, that it may almost be called an 
instinct of the soul. And, as Cicero says, " Not to know what has taken place 
in former times is to be always a child, for if no use is made of the labors of 
by-gone ages, the world must always remain in the infancy of knowledge." 

This is eminently true of the history of our own country, the origin and 
growth of which have well-nigh the interest of personal experience. As we 
ponder its pages, we share the life and witness the progress of those who have 
passed away, while at the same time we are exempt from the dangers and 
self-denials to which they were subject, and through which they so patiently 
and faithfully struggled in carrying out the far-reaching plans of Providence, and 

laying broad and deep the foundations of our National Life. _ 

iii 3 



iv PREFACE. 

To give a connected and clear History of the United States, from the days 
of the Northmen to the present time, is the object of this work. The aim has 
been to give an account of the origin and growth of Oar Country^ adapted 
especially to its families and youth; not, on the one hand, so full of minute 
details as to be tedious, nor, on the other, so brief as to be defective, but one 
that shall give, according to the best authorities, a full and proportionate 
narrative of the great events of our history, abounding as it does in the most 
stirring and instructive incidents. The work makes no claim to originality, for 
history is a matter of record, where one is, of course, dependent on the 
statements of previous annalists and writers, and where the chief merit is to so 
condense and arrange, as to be not onl}' correct, but entertaining in matter, and 
attractive by illustration. 

In such a work we may trace the first voyagers on their way over the 
ocean, the struggles and hardships of the early colonists, their various conflicts 
with the Indians, tlje gradual extension and growth of their settlements, the 
oppressions of the mother country which led to the war for independence, with 
its struggles and final triumph, the growing prosperity of the States, the war 
of 1812 and that with Mexico, and the fearful war of secession, leading to the 
overthrow of slavery, and to the renewed union of the States as one great and 
prosperous Nation. Years too, of peace, prosperit}' and progress, far more in 
number than those of struggle and conflict, may well fill us with thankfulness 
as we ponder the blessings they have brought, while the story of our statesmen, 
scholars, inventors, and explorers, and that of our progress in agriculture, 
commerce, education and religion are seen to be such as justly to place our 
country in the front rank of the great Nations of the World. 

As the maps of a country make plain its geograph}', so engravings of 
its scener}-, passing events and its distinguished characters, give vividness 
and interest to its written history, and aid the memory in retaining the 
knowledge imparted by it. The great number of such illustrations given in 
this volume cannot but aid in making the work both interesting and 
instructive to all. 

Detroit, 1892. T. E. 




CONTENTS. 



PERIOD I. 

EARLY DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Northmen or Vikings, . . 13 

CHAPTER II. 
Columbus and other Discoverers, . 21 



CHAPTER III. 
The Progress of Colonization, 



The New England Colonies, 
Virginia, 



CHAPTER I. 
Causes of the Revolution, 



PERIOD II. 

THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 

New York, 
New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, 
Delaware, . 
Maryland, 
North Carolina, 
South Carolina, 
Georgia, 



PERIOD III. 

LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 

The Other Colonies, 

CHAPTER II. 
French and Indian Wars, 



CHAPTER I. 




Virginia, 


• 32 


Massachusetts, 


40 


Connecticut, . . . . 


• 49 


Rhode Island, 


54 


New Hampshire, 


■ 56 


Maine 


59 


Vermont, . . . . . 


• 63 



CHAPTER I. 



95 
106 



PERIOD IV. 

THE REVOLUTION. 

CHAPTER II. 
137 The War of the Revolution, 



• 25 



64 

74 
76 
81 
83 
87 

89 
92 



"5 



127 



143 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



PERIOD V, 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



CHAPTER I. 
The New States, . . . 164-207 

CHAPTER II. 
The Territories, . . . 207-227 

CHAPTER III. 

Administrations before the Civil War: 
Washington, 1789 to 1797, . 
Adams, 1797 to 1801, 
Jefferson, 1801 to 1809, 
Madison, 1809 to 1817, . 
Monroe, 1817 to 1825, 



. 229 
234 

• 237 
241 

• 249 

John Quincy Adams. 1825 to 1829, 251 
Jackson, 1829 to 1837, . . 254 

Van Buren, 1837 to 1841, . 258 
Harrison and Tyler, 1841 to 1845, 260 
Polk, 1845 to 1849, • • 263 

Taylor and Fillmore, 184910 1853, 267 
Pierce, 1853 to 1857, . . 271 

Buchanan, 1857 to 1861, . . 273 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Civil War and Emancipation : 

The Causes of the War, . . 278 

Lincoln's Administration, . . 280 

Campaigns of 1861, . . . 284 

Campaigns of 1862, . . . 290 



Campaigns of 1863, . 
Campaigns of 1864, 
The Final Campaign, 1865, 
Review of Campaigns, 

CHAPTER V. 

Administrations after the Civil War — • 
Reconstruction and Peace : 
Johnson, 1865 to 1869, . 
Grant, 1869 to 1877, . 
Hayes, 1877 to 188 1, 
Garfield and Arthur, 1881 to 1885, 
Cleveland, 1885 to 1889, . 
Harrison, 1889 to 1893, . 

CHAPTER VI. 

Our Country's Growth and Improve- 
ment : 
Territory, ..... 
Population, .... 
Government, .... 

Education, .... 

Religion, ..... 
Literature, .... 

Inventions, Discoveries, Improve- 
ments, .... 

CHAPTER VII. 

National and other Parks, 



300 

313 

320 



335 
340 

348 

351 

359 
362 



370- 

i7l 
375 
377 
385 
387 

395 
416 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 



Franklin's Plan of Union, . . 433 

The Declaration of Independence, . 435 

The Confederation of 1778, . 438 

Constitution of the United States, 440 



Amendments to the Constitution, . 452 
The Farewell Address of George 

Washington, .... 457 

Proclamation of Emancipation, . 467 



Inhabitants Before Our Historical Period, 



469 




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 
First Sight of Land, . Frontispiece 

Vessel of the Northmen, . . -15 
The Dragon Ship, . . . i6 

Ruins of a Norse Building, . ■ i/ 

Old Tower at Newport, . . . 18 

The Dighton Rock, . . . -19 
Christopher Columbus, ... 20 
Vessels of Columbus, . . .22 

Balboa's Discovery of the Pacific, . 23 
The Eclipse of the IMoon, . . 24 

Gate at the Entrance of St. Augustine, 25 
Street Scene in St. Augustine, . 26 
The Sun at Midnight in the Arctic 

Regions, . . . . -27 
The Aurora Seen in Greenland, . 29 
The Natural Bridge, Virginia, . . 30 



Page 

The James River near Richmond, 32 

View on the Potomac, . . -33 

Tower Rocks, Virginia, ... 34 

Baptism of Pocahontas, . . -36 

Introduction of Slavery, . . 37 

View on the Rappahannock, . . 39 

Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, . 43 

Scene on the Hudson River, . . 44 

Silver Cascade, Crawford's Notch, 46 

Old South Church, Boston, . . 47 

Turner's Falls, Massachusetts, . 48 

Attack on the Early Settlers, . . 5° 

Yale College, Connecticut, . . 52 

Woodland Scene in Rhode Island, . 55 

Squam Lake, New Hampshire, . 57 

St. John's River, . . . .58 



Vlll 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Bar Harbor, Maine, 

Off the Coast of Maine, . 

View in Acadia, .... 

Scene in Maine, . . . . 

Trout Stream in Vermont, 

Sabbath-day Point, Lake George, 

Sketch of Niagara Falls by Father 

Hennepin in i6g8, . 
Niagara Falls, American Side, . 
The Falls of Niagara, 
Opening of the Erie Canal, 
Trenton Falls, New York, 
First Passenger Railway, 183 1, . 
Rapids of the St. Lawrence River, 
Catskill Mountain Scene, . 
Arrest of Carteret, 
Chateaugay Chasm, New York, . 
Penn's House, Philadelphia, . 
View on the Susquehanna River, 
Penn's Treaty with the hidians, 
Pennsylvania Forest Scenery, 
Scene on the Delaware Bay, . 
Fight with the Maryland Pinnace, 
The " Golden Lion " Firing on the 

Marjdand Boats, 
Cumberland Gap, Maryland, . 
A Vista in North Carolina, 
View of a Cotton Chute, 
Scene in South Carolina, . 
A Planter's House in Georgia, 
Scene in a Georgia Meadow, 
On the New England Coast, 
Shore of Cape Ann, . . . . 
Evening at Sea, .... 
Church-Goers in the Early Colonies, . 
A Pioneer Home in Winter, . 



Page 

59 
60 
61 
62 

63 
65 

66 

67 
69 
70 

71 

72 

72 
73 
74 
75 
77 
78 

79 
80 

82 
84 

85 
86 

87 
89 

91 
92 

94 
96 

97 
97 
98 

lOI 



Page 
102 
IDS 
107 
109 
Til 
112 
114 
116 
118 
119 
121 
122 
123 
124 



A Mountain Stream, 

Indian Burial Ground, 

View on the James River, Virginia, 

A Virginia Summer Scene, 

Group of Trees, 

Summer on the Rappahannock, 

Upper Au Sable Lake, 

A River Scene, .... 

A Cotton Field, 

The Cascades, .... 

The Alleghany Mountains, 

A Coast Scene, .... 

Roger's Slide, Lake George, 

A Dutch Household, 

Early Settlers Ascending the Hudson, 125 

Quebec, ...... 128 

Washington's Attack on the French, 130 
Wolfe's Cove, . . . .132 

Night Attack on Colonial Schooner, 133 
Attack on the Fort at Presque Isle, 134 
Meeting of Washington and Rocham- 

beau, . . . . . .136 

Eventide, ..... 138 

Building in Boston Where the Tea 

Plot was Hatched, . . . 140 
Building in Philadelphia Where the 

First Congresses were held, . 141 
The Brook, ..... 142 

The Monument on Bunker Hill, . 144 
Statue of Jefferson, .... 145 

The Prison Ship " Jersey," . . 146 
Washington Crossing the Delaware, 148 
Attack on Chew's House, . . .150 
Surrender of Burgoyne, . . 152 

Washington Reproving Lee at Mon- 
mouth, ..... 153 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



IX 



Page 
Arnold at New London, . . 155 
Washington's Headquarters at New- 
burgh, 156 

Exploit of Arnold, . . -157 

Attack by the British on the Block 

House at Tom's River, . .158 

The House Where Cornwallis Sur- 
rendered, . . . .160 
Washington Surrendering his Com- 
mission, ..... 162 
Attack on the Rioters, . . .163 
Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, . . 165 
Look-out Mountain, Tennessee, . 166 
Red-mill Falls, near Elyria, Ohio, . 167 
A Mississippi River Boat, . . 168 
Loading a Cotton Steamer, . . 169 
View on the Mississippi, . . 172 
A Nook, Fox Lake, Illinois, . -173 
Scene on the Mississippi River, . 174 
Cathedral Spires on the Merrimac, 175 
Hot Springs, Arkansas, . . .176 
Detroit River Scenes, . . .177 
Scenes on the St. Mary River, . .178 
Government Canal and Locks, Sault 

Ste. Marie, Michigan, . . 179 
Amelia Island, Florida, . . .181 
Sam Houston, .... 183 

A Nook on Spirit Lake, Iowa, . . 185 
On the Brule River, Wisconsin, . 187 
Big Trees of California, . . .188 
Yosemite Valley, . . . .189 
Three Brothers, Yosemite Valley, 190 
Mirror Lake and Mount Watkins, 191 

The Falls of St. Anthony, . . 192 

Lake of the Woods, . . .193 

Portland, Oregon, and Willamette 

River 194 



Page 
A Kansas Harvest Scene, . . 196 

Basaltic Pinnacles, Colorado River, 199 
The Cascades, .... 200 
Near the Summit of the Rockies, . 203 
View in Grand Caiion, . . 204 

Rocky Mountain Scene, . . 205 

Flowers and Butterflies, . . 206 
Mountain Scenery, Utah, . . 208 

White Cliffs, Utah, ... 209 
Colored Cliffs Near Kanab, Utah, 210 
Marble Canon of the Colorado, . 211 
Cliff Dwellings, Arizona, . . 212 
Distant View of Moqui, with Sheep- 
pens in the Foreground, . .213 
Sitka, Alaska, . . . . 215 
Scenes in the Inland Passage, . 216 

Washington (Two Views), . . 218 
Washington in 18 10 — The Old Capitol, 219 
The Capitol — East View, . . 221 

The Bartholdi Fountain, Statues — 

General Scott and others, . 222 
The Naval, and Other Statues, . 223 
Statues — General Rawlins and others, 224 
Washington Monument, . . 225 
The White House From Pennsylvania 

avenue, ..... 226 
Mount Vernon from the Potomac 

River, 227 

Washington's Reception at Trenton, 228 
George Washington, . . . 230 

Franklin's Grave at Philadelphia, 231 

View of Washington's House, Mt. 

Vernon, .... 232 

Washington's Bedchamber, . . 233 
John Adams, .... 234 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Martha Washington's Bedchamber, 

Washington's Grave, Mt. Vernon, 

Thomas Jefferson, .... 

Duel Between Burr and Hamilton, 

The Ofificers of the Chesapeake Offer- 
ing Their Swords, 

James Madison, .... 

Perry's Victory on Lake Erie, 

The Burning of Washington, 

Capture of the Cyane and Levant, 

James Monroe, .... 

A Scene in the Early Settlement of 
Ohio, 

John Q. Adams, .... 

Early Days on the Delaware and 
Hudson Canal Railroad, . 

Andrew Jackson, 

A Negro Village, .... 

Scene in Florida near Rock Ledge, 

Scene on St. Clair River, Michigan, 

Martin Van Buren, 

William IL Harrison, 

John Tyler, .... 

Salt Lake City, .... 

James K. Polk, .... 

The City of Mexico, 

The City of Vera Cruz, 

A Woodland Scene, 

Zachary Taylor, .... 

Millard Fillmore, .... 

Franklin's Expedition in the Polar 
Regions, .... 

Franklin Pierce, .... 

Mount Hood, .... 

James Buchanan, .... 

Harper's Ferry, Virginia, 



Page 

236 
237 
239 

240 
241 
243 
245 
247 
249 

250 
2^2 

253 

254 

255 
256 

257 

258 

260 

261 

262 

263 

264 

265 

266 

268^ 

269 

270 
271 
272 
273 
274 



A Skirmisher, .... 

General Robert E. Lee's Old Home, 
Arlington, .... 

Defense of Fort Sumter, . ' . 

A Railroad Battery, 

Early Home of Abraham Lincoln, 

Abraham Lincoln, .... 

Federal Iron-clad River Gun-boat. 

The Swamp Angel, 

On the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 

Destruction of Fort Ocrakoke, 

Battle of Bull Run, 

Fort Pensacola, .... 

Capture of New Orleans, 

Bailey's Dam on the Red River, 

\J . S. Military Telegraph Wagon, 

Fort Pillow, ..... 

The " Destroyer," 

Battle of Malvern Hill, . 

Antietam Bridge .... 

Sinking of the Alabama, 

Fight Between the Monitor and Mer- 
rimac, ..... 

The "Nashville" Destroying the 
" Merchantman," 

Battle of Chancellorsville, 

View F"rom Gettysburg — West, 

Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, . 

Gettysburg From Little Round-Top 
— East, ..... 

Gun-boats Passing Before Vicksburg, 

Longstreet's Arrival at Bragg's Head- 
quarters, .... 

Federal Lines at Chattanooga, 

Moist Weather at the Front, 

Attack on Charleston, 



Page 
275 

276 
277 

279 
280 
281 
282 
283 
285 
286 
287 
288 
289 
291 
292 
293 
294 
296 
297 
298 

299 

301 

303 
304 
305 

306 
307 

308 

309 
310 

3" 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 
Fairfax Court House, . . 312 

Explosion of Mine Before Petersburg, 314 
General Sherman's Scouts, . -315 
Death of General Polk, . . 316 

Savannah, 317 

Opening of the Fight Between the 

Kearsarge and Alabama, . 319 
End of the Oyster War, . . . 320 
The Peace Commissioners, . 321 

Raising the Flag over Fort Sumter, 322 
Destruction of the Nashville, . 323 

Sunset Over Atlanta, . . . 324 

On Picket, 325 

Retreat of Lee's Army, . . 326 
Surrender of General Lee, . . 327 
The House Where General Lee Sur- 
rendered, .... 328 
The Capture of Booth, . . . 329 
Lincoln's Grave, .... 330 
Review of the Union Troops at 

Washington, .... 331 
The Lincoln Monument, . . 332 
Residence of Andrew Johnson, . 335 
Andrew Johnson, . . . 336 

Ruins of Richmond After the War, 337 
Picking Up the Atlantic Cable, . 339 
Ulysses S. Grant, . . . 340 

Birthplace of U. S. Grant, . . 341 
The Joint High Commission, . 342 
Storming of the Corean Forts, . 343 
The Burning of Chicago, . . 344 
" I Declare the Centennial Exhibition 

Open," 345 

Attack by Modocs on the Peace Com- 
missioners, .... 346 
Custer's Last Fight, . . . 347 



Page 
Rutherford B. Hayes, . . 349 

View on the Panama Railroad, . 350 
James A. Garfield, . . . 351 
Put-in-Bay Harbor, Ohio, . -352 

Chester A. Arthur, . . . 353 
General View of the Brooklyn Bridge, 354 
Arrival of the French Transport Isere, 355 
Statue of Liberty, .... 356 
The Farthest Point North, Reached 

by Lieutenant Lockwood, . 357 
Caldwell, the Birthplace of Cleveland, 358 
Grover Cleveland, .... 359 
Decoration Day, .... 360 
Earthquake at Charleston, S. C, . 361 
The Funeral Train of General Grant 

Passing West Point, . . 363 
Benjamin Harrison, . . . 364 

Hon. Thomas W. Palmer, . . 365 
Kentucky Scene, . . . . 367 
A Harvest Scene in Michigan; . 369 
A Western Prairie, . . . -371 
Ihiproving Leadville, 1877, . . 372 
Leadville in 1887, .... 374 
Gulf Coast near Galveston, . . 378 

Wild Flowers 381 

The Bend, 383 

Along the Shore 385 

Ferns and Leaves, . . . 387 
Wild Flowers of the Pacific Coast, 391 
Mountain Flowers, . . . 395 

Pennsylvania Scenery, . . . 39S 
An Early Steamboat, . . . 407 
A Modern Steamer, . . . 408 

A Scene in the Rockies, . . 410 
The Hunter's Retreat, . . .413 
Fort Scenes, Mackinac, . . 414 



xu 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Robinson's Folly, Mackinac Island 

Plummer's Lookout, 

Sugar Loaf Rock, 

Arch Rock, .... 

Yosemite Valley, 

Grand Canon, Colorado River, 

Steeple Rocks, Yellowstone, 

The Grotto, .... 

Boiling Springs, Yellowstone Park, 

Boiling Sulphur Springs, Yellowstone 

Park, 425 

Great Falls of the Yellowstone River, 426 
Old Faithful Geyser, . . . 427 



Page 
416 

417 
418 
419 
420 
421 
422 

423 
424 



Lime Tower near Hot Springs, 

The Yellowstone, 

The Grotto Geyser, 

Lower Falls, Yellowstone Park, . 

Map, ...... 

Signers of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, .... 

The Golden Gate, .... 

Observatory Mound, 
Works at Marietta, Ohio, 
Islands in the Detroit River, . 
American Country Scenes, 
The First Icebergs, 



Page 
428 
429 
430 
431 
432 

439 
468 
470 
473 

V 

vii 
xii 




Our Country. 



PERIOD 



EARLY DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Northmen or Vikings. 

THE history of our country is full of interest, both to the old and young. Long 
before its discovery by Europeans, it was inhabited by the " Mound Builders," 
a prehistoric people whose monuments are now found in various parts of the 
land, and who, some suppose, were the remote ancestors of the modern Indians, while 
others think they were an entirely different people, conquered, and possibly in part 
exterminated, and in part merged in the tribes of the conquerors, and so disappearing 
as a people. Squier, Davis, and others take the former view ; but the traditions of at 
least two large Indian tribes give the latter, saying that the modern Indians conquered 
and drove out a people before them ; that that people conquered and drove out a race 
before themselves, and that the last mentioned people conquered and drove out those 
known as the " Mound Builders." Long before America was known to Europeans it 
was occupied by the Indians, whose numerous tribes were found in every part of 
the land, and the descendants of whom are still in the country, partly on reservations 
allotted by the government for their occupation, and partly in regions where they have 
long wandered or dwelt. Of the origin of the " Mound Builders," or of the Indians, 
comparatively little is known, but more full notices of them may be found at the 
end of this work. 

Nearly four hundred years before Christ, the inhabitants of the Eastern world had 
believed that there were undiscovered lands far to the West. Plato, who said his 
information came through Solon, from an old Egyptian priest, had told the well-known 
story, or fable, of Atlantis, describing its climate and scenery, its mountains, rivers, 
animals and inhabitants, and speaking of the Island as almost a paradise. And about a 
hundred years later Aristotle had taught that the earth was a sphere, and that the 

13 



14 OUR COUNTRY. 

waters on the west side of Europe washed the eastern shores of Asia. And Seneca 
tlie teacher of tlie Emperor Nero, who hvcd in the first century and died A. D. 65, as 
his words are translated by Archbishop Whately, said : "There shall come a time, in 
later ages, when the ocean shall relax its chains, and a vast continent shall appear, and 
a pilot shall find new worlds, and Thule (which was thought to be the end of the world) 
shall no more be the earth's boundary." This idea, kept alive through the middle ages, 
gave the impression which was widely spread, that by sailing westward, countries 
beyond the sea would some time be discovered. 

It is said that as early as A. D. 800, Japanese junks, driven by severe storms, had 
landed on the western coast of our great continent, and Modoc, a Welch prince, is said 
to have reached the coast of Virginia as early as A. D. 1170, though no permanent 
settlement was the result. And tradition had long asserted that nearly five hundred 
years before the time of Columbus, the Northmen had landed and made settlements on 
our eastern coast. These Northmen or Vikings had nothing, as the term "Viking" 
might seem to imply, of a kingly or royal character. They were not Vi-kiiig:. but 
l^ik-iiigs, simply the dwellers on the ]'iks or bays of the Scandinavian coasts, from 
which they went forth as bold and persevering buccaneers of the sea, much like the 
Algerian corsairs of a later day, except that, unlike tlie Algerians, they were not merely 
pirates and conquerors, but were also colonists, founding settlements in the lands they 
subdued and robbed. They were of the same race as those who, as Saxons, had, at an 
early day, overrun and subdued England, and afterward, as Normans, had conquered 
France, and still later, crossing over from France, had again conquered England, and 
mingling with the English and Saxons, laid the foundation of the Anglo-Saxon people. 

For a long time the Vikings were the terror of Europe, entering the ports and 
landing on what are now the British Isles, raiding up the rivers of France, and through the 
Mediterranean sea, reaching and plundering Africa, which they called "Saracen's land," 
and sending back the wealth of their booty to Norway, where, to this day, Greek and 
Arabic coins and chains of gold are found, as may be seen in the museums of Christiana 
and Copenhagen. 

Of the history and movements of these Vikings, Mr. Keary, in liis " Vikings in 
Western Christendom," has given full and most interesting accounts. As early as the 
year 789, as he quotes from the English Chronicle, " These Vikings sought the land of 
English folk," three ships bearing the first of these buccaneers, that, so far as is 
known, had not since the sixth century, made incursions on any Christian shore. These 
fierce freebooters had long and strongly built vessels, manned by from twenty to forty 
oarsmen on each side, and each having a mast thirty or forty feet high, set in a block of 
wood so large that, it is said, no block of equal size could now be found in Norway. 
These masts had no standing rigging, but with their square sails, were probably taken 
down when not in use, the dependence, in the absence of favoring wind, then being on 
the oars. In these powerful vessels the}' swept down from their old homes in the 
Scandinavian regions to the milder and richer South, and across the North sea to 
England, .Scotland, and Ireland, conquering and robbing wherever they went, and 
making many settlements under leaders who took the name of Kings. The ninth 
century saw their rise to greatness, and it saw also their decline; but during this 
hundred years they were the terror not only of France and the continent, but of the 
British Islands and every part of the coast. 



EARLY DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. 



15 



The model and structure of these vessels are now as well-known as if they were just 
built and launched from our ship-yards. They are depicted on the celebrated Bayeux 
tapestry, and cuts of them are still seen on the rocks of Norway, and their remains are 
now and then found in different parts of that country. One of them, represented in the 
cut, which is taken from an engraving in possession of Mr. R. B. Anderson, of 
Wisconsin, was dug up at Sandefjord, about half a mile from the sea. It had evidently 

been used as the burial place of its owner, and a full account 
of it has been given in a volume by Mr. N. Nicolayson, 
published at Christiana in 1882. It was about seventy- seven 
feet long, over sixteen feet wide at its greatest width, and 
between five and six feet in depth, drawing less than five feet 
of water. It was not like the "dug-outs " or bark canoes 
(ill^ij of the savage or half civilized tribes, but was "neatly built 

and well preserved, constructed on what a sailor would call 
beautiful lines, and eminently fitted for sea service." It was 
clinker built, that is each of its thick oaken boards overlapped 
the one below it, like shingles on a house-top, just as our best 
boats are built to-day, and all were bound together with 
strong iron rivets well made and clinched. The vessel had no 
decks, but seats were arranged for from forty to sixty 
rowers, and there were corresponding holes for the oars 
which were some twenty feet long. In the vessel was a 
tent-like chamber in which were found human bones, the 
bones of a dog, the bones and feathers of a peacock, some 
fish-hooks, and several bronze and lead ornaments for belts 
and harness, and about the vessel were the bones of several 
horses and dogs, which, it is supposed, had been sacrificed 
at the burial of the owner. Vessels much larger than this 
were called Dragons, and other sizes were known as Serpents 
and Cranes, each ship so built, or having some part or figure 
such as to represent the name it bore. 
/(l|''''t|W W S The Vikings who went forth in these vessels fought with 

stones, arrows and spears, and had grappling irons, with which 
to fasten to other vessels for boarding and close fighting. 
At a council in Norway some were clad in iron, some wore 
leather cloaks and had halberds over their shoulders and steel 
caps on their heads, and their leaders wore rich and costly 
garments. One of their leaders, or kings, as they were 
called, who, landed in Ireland to carry away cattle and other 
booty, is mentioned as having an iron helmet on his head, a red 
shield inlaid with gold, a sword the handle of which was of 
ivory, a short spear, and a red silk cloak over his coat, on 
which was embroidered with yellow silk, the figure of 
a lion. 

Ireland suffered more from the Vikings than England 
itself, for it was in the fullness of their strength and 
when their eagerness for plunder was still unsatisfied that 



lit 



r^i 



^^^ 



^■^ 



4 



if 



^vi 



Pv 



il 



i6 



OUR COUNTRY. 



they came down on the Irish coasts. Ireland, at that time, was rich in monasteries, 
abbeys, and convents, which offered most tempting inducements as well as 
opportunities for their attacks, for in the fifth and sixth centuries that country abounded 
in religious establishments in which was gathered a large part of the wealth of the 
people. The jeweled mass-books, the richly adorned vestments of the priests, and the 
gold and silver sacrificial vessels, both invited and rewarded those daring robbers of the 
sea. Up to the year 807 their attacks had been mostly confined to the outlaying 
islands lona and Man and to the Northumbrian coast, but in that year they came down 
upon the mainland, and by the year 825 had plundered most of the churches and 
religious establishments of the country. 

By the middle of the century they had established three Norse or Viking 
settlements in Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick, under rulers whom they called kings. 
Great as were the losses and sufferings from their conquests some advantages resulted 
from their occupation of the country. They taught the people great improvements in 
ship, or rather boat-building; the first native coinage was introduced by the Norse 
king of Dublin, and the Irish were practically instructed in the uses and benefits of 
navigation, for both commerce and war. The capital of ancient times had been in the 
middle kingdom, but the Norsemen brought it down to the coast, and when they broke 

up the monasteries, and scattered the monks and 
clerks who were the scholars of the times, the 
latter went forth in great numbers to the continent, 
to be instructors there, and in place of the religious 
houses from which they had been expelled, trading 
stations grew up, especially along the coasts, starting 
the germs of a new civilization and prosperity. 

The attack of the Northmen on England was 
later than on Ireland, and though for a time 
successful, they were in the end defeated and 
checked by King Alfred and his west Saxons in the 
great battle of Edington, and compelled to conform to the terms of the treaty of 
Wedmore, and from this time on their power in the country was broken, and their 
success as freebooters of the land as well as of the sea, steadily declined. It was toward 
the end of this century that they found their way to the New World. 

In coming to America the Northmen were not intending or thinking of discoveries. 
They did not go forth like Columbus in the faith that a new world was to be found in 
the West. They were, rather, accidental discoverers, making " what might almost be 
called coasting voyages from Norway to Scotland, from Scotland to Iceland, and at last 
to North America, each passage extending but a few hundred miles," and, so, 
unexpectedly to themselves, reaching the new world. 

After they had colonized in Iceland, and made it their home, Eric the Red, having, 
on account of a quarrel, been declared an outlaw, went to sea and discovered Greenland, 
which he thus named, that people, by the name, might be attracted to it. Taking a 
colony with him, he there took up his abode, about the year 986. With Eric was a 
friend, whose son, Bjazzi Herjulfson, was absent when they left Iceland, and who in 
endeavoring to follow them to Greenland, landed at three different places, and at last at 
Greenland, where he found his father and remained with him. His fellow adventurers 




THE DRAGON SHU'. 



EARLY DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. 



17 



determined to make further explorations, and to the number of thirty-five, led by Lief 
Ericson, sailed south and west, touching at several places, and at last discovered land 
which they called Vinland. Lief was followed by his brother Thorwald with thirty 
men, and Thorwald was followed by a larger expedition of sixty men and five women, 
who took with them cattle and provisions, and formed a settlement on the eastern part 
of what is now New England. Some have supposed the place was in the northern part 
of Maine, or even further north. But according to the writings of the Sagas, the region 
was not only one of forests and meadows, but of sO mild a climate that cattle did not 
need to be housed for the winter, and grapes abounded, and corn grew abundantly — a 
description that could not apply to Labrador, or even to the northern part of Maine. 

For a long time the accounts of the landing and settlement of the Northmen on 
the Atlantic coast were regarded with doubt and even disbelief. But they rest on 
writings and traditions as authentic as most of the statements which we have in the 
earliest annals of European history. They are mentioned in manuscripts of good 
authority still in existence in Iceland, in the Saga of Eric the Red written in Greenland, 











RUINS OK A NORSE BUILDING IN GREENLAND. 



and in that of Karlesnefni written in Iceland. These have been translated into different 
languages, and may be seen in Beamish's translation published in London in 1841, 
which has been reprinted by the Prince Society of Boston, and also, in part, in the 
Massachusetts Quarterly Review for March, 1849. -^"d in later Norse manuscripts of 
undoubted authority, there are references to " Vinland the Good " as a region in 
America well known. 

Where it was that the Northmen so settled has long been supposed to be utterly 
unknown. But from recent and careful investigation. Professor Eben N. Horsford, of 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, claims not only to have confirmed the statements of the 
Sagas, but to have found that the land on which these colonies settled was in 
Massachusetts; that after landing at Cape Cod and other places they finally fixed their 
main settlement at the mouth of what is now known as Stony Brook, on the Charles 
river, some nine miles from Cambridge, at or near where the town of Waltham now 
stands. Here, as he tells us, are found the remains of the buildings they erected, the 
fort, docks, wharves, walls, dams, canals, and basins, and also excavations ten and twelve 



iS 



OUR COUNTRY. 



feet deep, extending hundreds of feet in length on both sides of Stony Brook, and for 
much of the distance carefully graded and paved with stone. The old tower at 
Newport, Rhode Island, and the well known Dighton Rock, were at one time conjectured 










'J 




i 





OLD TOWER AT NEWPORT. 



to have been the work of the Northmen, though the former is of much later date, and 
is said to have been a windmill, copied from one at Chesterton, England; and the 
inscriptions on the Dighton Rock are supposed to have been made by the Indians. 



EARLY DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. 



19 



Norumbega, the name given to the region spoken of, was the ancient form of 
Norvega, or Norway, and of this, Vinland was supposed to be a part, the whole 
extending from what is now Rhode Island to the St. Lawrence river. It was first seen 
by Bjazzi Herjidfson in A. D. 985. The "landfall" of Lief Ericson, on Cape Cod, was 
in A. D. 1000, in which year he discovered the region supposed to be about Charles 
river, explored by Thorwald, his brother in A. D. 1003, and colonized by Thorfin 
Karlsnefni in A. D. 1007. The first bishop or minister of the settlers, Eric Gnupson, 
arrived in A. D. 1121 ; and the various industries of the settlers are said to have been 
carried on for three hundred and fifty years, till, finally, the last Norse ship went back 
to Iceland in A. D. 1347. The region was afterward occupied by the Breton French in 
the 15th, i6th and 17th centuries. 




TUF Dlr.IITON ROCK. 



Coming down to later times, it is an interesting fact that a Norwegian colony was 
founded in Bergen, New Jersey, in 1624; that the Swedes settled in Delaware in 1638; 
and that the first Swedish church was built at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1698; though both 
these colonies lost, to a certain extent, their identity, first by the infusion of the Dutch 
element and later by the English. Immigration from Norway to this country began on 
a larger scale in 1821, when religious persecution led large numbers, like the Pilgrims 
and Puritans of old, to seek new homes in some of our Western States. In 1824, the 
first emigration society was formed in Norway, and on the fourth of July, 1825, a party 
of fifty-two persons started for America, and after a voyage of fourteen weeks landed 
in New York, safely and all well. Since that time large numbers have followed to this 
country, where not a few of them have become distinguished in literature, and prominent 
as editors and in political life. 



20 



OUR COUNTRY. 




CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 
[Said by the present Duke of Varagua to be the most representative of the known portraits.] 



CHAPTER II. 

Columbus and other Discoverers. 

THE inland rivers of Greece and Rome, and so the Mediterranean sea had long been 
navigated, but it was not till toward the end of the fifteenth century, and the 
beginning of the sixteenth, that the discovery of the mariner's compass and other 
inventions had prepared the way for long voyages out of sight of land, and that the 
great discoveries of that period were made. Then, in the hope of finding a short way to 
the East Indies and all their supposed riches, various expeditions were fitted out in 
.Europe. The Portuguese landed in Brazil. Balboa reached the isthmus of Darien. {See 
cut on page 23.) Vasco de Gama went to India by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. 
And, at later dates, Davis, and Baffin, and Hudson, at the North, and IMagellan and 
others, at the South, as also the French, through the St. Lawrence and the great lakes, 
were seeking the same desired end — a short way to the East. 

It is, however, with Columbus, that the deeply interesting history of America begins. 
He was born at or near Genoa, about the year 1436, was the son of humble parents. His 
father, Dominico Colombo (as the name is written in Italian), was a wool-comber. He 
was the oldest of four children, having two brothers, Bartholomew and Giacomo or 
James, and one sister, of whom nothing is known except she married a person of obscure 
life. He attended school for a while at Pavia, where he became deeply interested in 
geography and astronomy, and, going early to sea, made several voyages on the 
Mediterranean. Settling at Lisbon, in A. D. 1470, he there married the daughter of 
Palestrello, a distinguished Italian cavalier lately deceased, who had been one of the 
most distinguished navigators under Prince Henry. The newly married couple resided 
with the mother of the bride. The latter, perceiving the interest which Columbus took 
in all matters concerning the sea, related to him all she knew of the voyages and 
expeditions of her late husband, and brought him all his papers, charts, journals, and 
memoranda. In this way he became acquainted with the routes of the Portuguese, 
their plans and conceptions, and occasionally sailed in the expeditions to the coast of 
Guinea. When on shore, he supported his family by making maps and charts, the 
construction of which, in those days, "required a degree of knowledge sufiicient to entitle 
the possessor to some distinction, as geography was just emerging from the darkness 
which had enveloped it for ages. The maps and journals of Palestrello and others 
impressed upon his mind the idea of land to the westward, which he then supposed to 
be the prolongation of the eastern shores of Asia, but which he afterward found to be a 
new and vast continent. 

About the year A. D. 1482 or '83, he suggested his plans for discovery to King John, 
of Portugal, and afterward to the authorities at Genoa, Venice and other places, but, in each 
case, in vain. It was not till seven more years of effort and disappointment had passed, 
that, encouraged and aided by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, he was able to sail from 
Palos at day-break August 3, A. D. 1492, with three small vessels, and a hundred and 



22 OUR COUNTRY. 

twenty men. For a long time Ferdinand was opposed to the views and plans of 
Columbus, but Isabella became so deeply interested in his projects that she pledged her 
jewels for the undertaking. The needful funds, however, were advanced by the royal 
treasurer, and all needful arrangements were made for the undertaking. Leaving Palos and 
directing his course westward, in October he discovered the Bahama and other West India 
islands, returning to Spain in A. D. 1493. Sailing again, in the same year, with seventeen 
vessels and fifteen hundred men, he discovered Jamaica and the Caribbee islands, and 
returned to Spain in A. D. 1496. In his third expedition, in A. D. 1498, he discovered 
Trinidad, and landed on the coast of South America, thus, for the first time, seeing the 
main land of the continent. In his fourth and last voyage, which was made in A. D. 1502, 
with four vessels and a hundred and fifty men, he hoped to have found a passage uniting 




THE NINA. 



THE SANTA MARIA. 

VESSELS OF COLUMBUS. 



the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but his crew became mutinous, and after many difficulties 
and disasters, he returned to Spain in November A. D. 1504, having added but little to 
his previous discoveries. Isabella was now dead, and Ferdinand proved basely ungrateful 
to the great discoverer; and so the noblest navigator the world has ever known, 
misrepresented and opposed by those who were envious and jealous of his greatness, and 
neglected by the King, at last died in poverty, at Valladolid, May 20, A. D. 1506. 

Pages might be filled with anecdotes of Columbus and of his ships and voyages and 
of his reception by the natives. At first they received him with kindness, which was 
continued during most of the year, which, on his fourth voyage, he spent in Jamaica while 
waiting for supplies for which he had sent. But the Spaniards being harsh and unjust 
to the natives, they finally refused to bring in the provisions on which the lives of the 
voyagers depended. Columbus, however, led them to change their course by appealing 



EARLY DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. 



23 



to their fears and superstition. Knowing an eclipse was soon to occur, he threatened the 
destruction of the moon if they did not comply with his wishes. And the echpse taking 
place as he had foretold, they were so terrified that they hastened to do his will, and 
supply the wants of his people. {See cut 071 page 24.) 

But though to Columbus belongs the undivided honor of leading the way to the 
Western world, to John and Sebastian Cabot belongs the credit of first landing on 
the coast of what is now the United 
States. Fourteen months before 
Columbus, on his third voyage, 
came in sight of the main land, 
and nearly two years before 
Americus Vespucius sailed west 
of the Canary Islands, the Cabots, 
father and son, under patents from 
Henry VII, reached the main land, 
June 24, A. D. 1497, and thus gave 
a continent to England. In a 



|,«f,Wl^ 







BALBOA S DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC, SEPTEMBER 25. I5I3. 



cond voyage, after the death 
of his father, Sebastian Cabot 
reached Newfoundland, where 
he reported that the natives 
were clad in the skins of animals, 
and the fish swarmed in such 
vast shoals as to impede the 
progress of his vessels, while 
the deer were larger than 
those of England, and the 
bears were seen to plunge into 
the water to catch fish with 



OUR COUNTRY. 



their claws. Continuing his voyage in a southern direction, he explored the coast as far 
as Virginia, and possibly to Florida. In 15 13, Ponce de Leon landed in Florida. In 1520, 
some Spanish vessels from St. Domingo were driven, in a storm, on the coast of North 
Carolina. In 151 1, Cortez and his followers conquered Mexico, including what is now 
Texas, New Mexico and California, which thus became a province of Spain. In 1539-42, 
De Soto discovered and explored the Mississippi river. In 1 584-5, Sir Walter Raleigh sent 
two expeditions to the coast of North Carolina, and attempted a settlement on Roanoke 
Island. In 1565 a Spanish settlement was made at St. Augustine, P^lorida. In 1607, 
Jamestown, in Virginia, was settled. New York, then known as New Netherlands, was 
settled in 1613, and Plymouth, Mass., in 1620. The 
country on the great lakes, and on the Mississippi 
was explored by La Salle in 1682. Settlements 
were made by the French in Arkansas, in 1685, 
and at Mobile and Vincennes in 1702. Some of 
these settlements were utter failures. Some of 
the more important and successful ones may now 
be considered. 




THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON. 



CHAPTER III. 



The Progress of Colonization. 

SAINT AUGUSTINE, now the oldest city in the United States, and which still retains 
its ancient appearance {See cut page 26), was first settled, as said above, in 1565, by 
Menendez de Aviles, a Spanish navigator, who, with fifteen hundred followers, arrived 
off the coast on the i8th of August, and gave the new settlement the name it still bears. 
The Spaniards built a large moat or ditch around their 
settlement and at the entrance they built a massive gate 
of masonry, which has proven a providential opening to 



•i 









""^ ' *', **" *&• , 



















ij—i 



M\ 



tM-- 












GATE AT THE ENTRANCE OF ST. AUGUSTINE, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 189O. 



53ESi 



the new world, and from which the colonizing work has expanded into a nation the progress 
and prosperity of which have become the wonder of mankind. The early settlers had hard 
struggles to maintain themselves against the Indians and against French and English 
adventurers. Twice the settlement was captured and pillaged; in 1586 by Sir Francis Drake 



35 



26 



OUR COUNTRY. 



and in 1665 by John Davis, a pirate, but still it grew slowly, and in 1763 was ceded, with 

other Spanish provinces, to Great Britain, and so at last became part of the United States. 

The first attempt to colonize this country from England was made by Sir Walter 

Ralei"-h in 1584. Under a charter from Queen Elizabeth he sent out an exploring 







STREET SCENE IN ST. AUGUSTINE FROM A RECENT PHOTOGRAPH. 

expedition to what is now North Carolina, which after some six weeks, went back to 
England. The commanders of the expedition were delighted with the region, which, in 
the quiet beauty of summer, seemed to them almost a paradise ; and on their return to 
England they gave such favorable reports as to the country and all they had seen, that 



EARLY DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. 27 

Elizabeth, who was called the " Virgin Queen," gave it the name of Virginia, a title which 
was then applied to most of the coast territory extending from Maine to Georgia. 

Encouraged by these favorable reports, Raleigh, the next year, sent out a second 
expedition, consisting of seven vessels and a hundred and eight men, commanded at first 
by Sir Richard Granville, but soon coming under the charge of Ralph Lane. As there 
were no women in the colony the Indians imagined the colonists were not born of women, 
and therefore were immortal beings. The mathematical instruments, the burning-glass, 
the guns, the clocks, and the use of letters by which messages were sent on bits of paper 
and without vocal speech, all seemed to them to be the work of gods rather than of men, 
and for a time the Englishmen were reverenced as of divine origin and the special favorites 
of Heaven. But seeing the power of fire-arms the natives soon got the impression that 
sickness and death among themselves were caused by invisible bullets ; and fearing that the 
strangers might intend to kill them, and so take their places, they soon began planning to 
get them away. Knowing that the colonists were desirous of finding a short way across 
the continent to India or China, they told Lane that the sea was but a little way to the 
West, and he, believing their story, set out, with most of his men, to find it. But being 
of course disappointed, and falling short of provisions, they came back just in time to save 
those they had left from being destroyed by the Indians. Their wants were supplied in 
part by Sir Francis Drake, who was on his return from the West Indies. He brought 




THE SUN AT MIDNIGHT IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS — AS SEEN BY RECENT EXPLORERS. 



28 OUR COUNTRY. 

them provisions, and left them a ship, but the latter being soon afterwards lost in a storm, 
the colonists became discouraged and went back to England. 

Lane and his associates, while in the country, carefully examined its productions, 
especially those which they thought might be sources of profitable commerce. Maize, or 
the Indian corn, attracted his attention, both for its productiveness and its value for food ; 
and the potato, though it was known before, had attracted but little attention till brought 
into use in England by these returned colonists. Lane also observed the culture of 
tobacco, and was the first to introduce it into England. He himself used it, and believed 
in its healthful influence. He learned from the Indians to smoke it ; and his example was 
soon followed in England, some of the first tobacco-pipes being made of the shell of the 
walnut for the bowl, and a straw for the stem of the pipe. It is said th^t when Sir 
Walter Raleigh's servant first saw him with the smoke coming out of his mouth, he 
thought he was on fire, and poured a pitcher of water over his head to put out the flames. 

Not discouraged by his previous failures, Raleigh determined to send out another 
colony which should be agricultural, consisting of emigrants with their wives and children, 
who should make their homes in the new world, and so establish settlements that should 
be permanent. John White was appointed governor, and with him were eleven assistants 
for the administration of affairs. They arrived on the coast of North Carolina in the 
summer of 15S7, and hastened to the Isle of Roanoke, hoping to find the few men who 
had been left there by Granville ; but they found only the ruins of the fort, and the 
scattered bones of the miserable men who had been murdered by the Indians. Soon after 
the landing and settlement of White's colony, his granddaughter, the first English child, 
was born on the continent and named " Virginia Dare." White, himself, going back to 
England for supplies, was detained by the war with Spain, and when at last he returned, 
the colony, composed of eighty-nine men and seventeen women, had entirely disappeared, 
though some twenty years afterward it was said that seven of them were still living among 
the Indians. So ended the efforts of Raleigh to establish settlements in America. Five 
times he had sent to search for his lost colonists, but each time in vain. Their fate was 
never fully known. , 

Other Voyages to America. 

The favorable reports of the early adventurers, and the still cherished hope of finding 
a short passage to India, led to still further efforts at discovery. In 1602, Bartholomew 
Gosnold, who had already sailed to Virginia by the round about route by the Canaries 
and the West Indies, endeavored to reach America by the direct route, and had well nigh 
secured to New England the first permanent English colony. Steering his small bark 
directly across the Atlantic, in seven weeks he reached the coast of Massachusetts, and 
landed, with four men, at Cape Cod, the first spot in New England ever trod by English. 
men. Reaching the westernmost part of the Elizabeth Islands, they built on it a store 
house and fort, intending to lay the foundations of what should be the first New England 
colony. But fear of the Indians, want of provisions, and disagreements as to expected 
profits, brought their plans to an end, and the whole party soon went back to England, 
after an absence of some four months. 

So favorable, however, were their reports of the land they had visited, that another 
expedition consisting of two small vessels, with forty-three men, was fitted out at Bristol, 



EARLY DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. 



29 



and under the command of Martin Pring, sailed for America in April, 1603. The vessels 
were well provided with trinkets and merchandise for traffic with the natives, and the 
voyage was every way successful, reaching the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts, and 
returning safely to England in about six months. Other enterprises for discovery and 
traffic soon followed. Bartholomew Gilbert sought in vain for the remains of the colonies 
of Raleigh. An expedition commanded by George Weymouth, seeking a northwest 
passage, explored Labrador, and discovered the Penobscot river. And these and other 
voyages so spread inforination and wakened enterprise, as to lead to the later and 
permanent settlements which built up the United States. The daring and skill of these 




TirE AURORA SEEN IN GREENLAND. 



early adventurers were wonderful. The ocean was untried, and its winds and currents 
unknown. The vessels were mostly of less than a hundred tons burden. Frobisher's 
vessel was only twenty-five tons ; and two of those of Columbus were without a deck. 
Hudson, by the mutiny of his sailors, was turned adrift in an open boat, in the bay now 
bearing his name, and there left to perish by the waves or the savages. The vessels of 
several of the early navigators went down at sea with all on board. And such was the 
state of the art of navigation that the dangers of the sea were practically a hundredfold 
greater than they are at the present day. 



30 



OUR COUNTRY. 




THE NATURAL BRIDGE, VIRGINIA. 



PERIOD II, 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



CHAPTER L 

Not counting Vermont, which did not come into the Union till 1791, the original 
thirteen colonies whose delegates signed the Declaration of Independence were Virginia, 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. 

The Old Thirteen. 

The curtain rises on a hundred years, — 

A pageant of the olden time appears. 

Let the historic muse her aid supply, 

To note and name each form that passes by; 

Here come the "old original Thirteen." 
Sir Walter ushers in the Virgin Queen; 
Catholic Mary follows her, whose land 
Smiles on soft Chesapeake from either strand; 
Then Georgia, with the sisters Caroline, — 
One the palmetto wears, and one the pine; 
Next, she who ascertained the rights of men, 
Not by the sword, but by the word of Penn, — 
The friendly language hers, of "thee" and "thou." 
Then, she whose mother was a thrifty vrouw,— 
Mother herself of princely children now; 
And. sitting at her feet, the sisters twain, — 
Two smaller links in the Atlantic chain, — 
They, through those long, dark winters, drear and dire. 
Watched with our Fabius round the bivouac fire, — 
One the free mountain maid, in white and green, 
One guards the Charter Oak with lofty mien; 
And, lo! in the plain beauty once she wore. 
The Pilgrim mother from the Bay State shore; 
And last, not least, is Little Rhody seen. 
With face turned heavenward, steadfast and serene, — 
She on her anchor, Hope, leans, and will ever lean. 
31 — Charles T. Brooks. 



32 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Virginia. 

In the early voyages of Columbus, and of other early navigators, the great aim, as 
we have seen, was to discover a new and short passage to India, with all its imagined 
wealth. The passion for gathering gold, and the desire for the luxuries of the tropical 
regions were the leading motives to enterprise. The popular idea seemed to be that 
untold wealth could be gathered almost without effort in the new world. " I tell thee," 
says one of the actors in Marston's play of " Eastward, Ho!" which was written in 1605, 
" "-old is more plentiful there than copper is with us ; and for as much red copper as I 
can bring, I'll have thrice tiie weight in gold. Why, man, all the dripping-pans are of 




THE JAMES RIVER AND COUNTRY NEAR RICHMOND. 



pure gold, and all the chains with which they chain up their streets are of massive gold. 
All the prisoners they take are fettered in gold ; and as for rubies and diamonds, they go 
forth in holidays and gather them by the sea-shore, to hang on their children's coats and 
stick in their children's caps, as commonly as our children wear saffron-gilt brooches and 
groats with holes in them. It is a pleasant country, withal, as ever the sun shined on, 
temperate and full of all sorts of excellent viands. Then, for your means of 
advancement, there it is simple, and not preposterously mixed. You may be an 
alderman there, and never be a slave. Besides, there we shall have no more law than 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



33 



conscience, and not too much of either, — shall serve God enough, and eat and drink 
enough, and enough is as good as a feast." Such was too much the theory that at first 
led great numbers to go forth as colonists, though afterward, as less influenced by such 
wild anticipations, came the higher aim of founding states, and planting permanent 
colonies, with all the elements of civilization and religion. 

In 1606, under a patent from James I., the "London Company" was formed to send 
out a colony to America. And on the igth of December of that year, a little squadron of 
three small vessels, with a hundred and five men, set sail for Virginia. The making up of 
the company was not auspicious. John Smith, one of their leading men, speaks of them 
as " poor gentlemen, tradesmen, serving-men, and libertines." Of the hundred and five 
of their number only twelve were laborers ; and though they were going to a wilderness 
where there was not a dwelling of any kind, there were only four carpenters, and none of 
the men had families. After a tedious voyage of nearly five months, they at last reached 

the peninsula of Jamestown, which, in May, 1607, they 
selected as the site of their colony. By the middle of 
summer, when Newport, their leader, sailed for England, 
their provisions were exhausted, the Indians had become 
unfriendly, and the intense heat of the climate brought on 
disease, so that one half the members of the colony died 
before September, and the colony would have been entirely 
broken up but for Captain John Smith, so noted in the early 
history of the country, and perhaps the strongest and most 
representative man of all the colonists of Virginia. In spite 




VIEW ON THE FOTOMAC. 



34 



OUR COUNTRY. 




Is, 



of discouragements and almost 
insurmountable obstacles, Smith 
kept the colony together for two 
years, drilling the soldiers, com- 
pelling labor, repairing the fort, 

conciliating the Indians, whom he ''"^outwitted, and procuring from them the 
corn and provisions which kept the colonists from starving. 

The story of Smith being taken prisoner by Powhatan, the head chief of some —J 
thirty tribes, and that when condemned to death he was saved by Pocahontas, the '^ 
daughter of that chief, is probably a fiction, for it is not mentioned in his first account of 
his explorations, which was published in 1608, and did not appear in print till about 1616 
or 161 7, in the time of Queen Anne. But whether the story has or has not any 
foundation, Smith undoubtedly so influenced the tribes as to keep them for a long time 
in friendly relations to the colonists. He explored the Bay of Chesapeake to the 
Susquehanna; probably entered the port of Baltimore, and ascended the Potomac up to 
the falls at Georgetown. He was not only the leading man in the colony, but was made 
its governor; but when new colonists arrived who opposed his administration, and after 



THE EARLY -COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 35 

he had been injured by an explosion of gunpowder, he gave up the government and 
returned to England, where he died in London in 163 1. He gave to New England the 
name it now bears. 

Smith, at his departure, had left some four hundred and ninety persons in the colony, 
but through indolence, vice, famine, disagreements among themselves, and hostility 
on the part of the natives, in less than a year only sixty remained ; and these would 
have perished but for the timely aid which was brought by Gates and Somers, with part 
of the fleet, followed by Lord Delaware, who came over as governor and captain-general, 
bringing fresh emigrants and also supplies for the settlers. He reorganized the colonv, 
which, with the additions he brought, consisted of some two hundred men. He held 
ofifice, however, but a short time, and was succeeded by Sir Thomas Dale, who for five 
years was the ruling spirit of the colony, though aided for a time by Gates. Dale ruled 
with severit}-, but in most respects wisely, restraining the idle and worthless, and keeping 
on friendly terms with the Indians. The borders of the colony were extended and much 
was done for the permanent prosperity of the settlement. 

Pocahontas was converted to the Christian faith, and in the quaint little structure at 
Jamestown, builded from the rough timbers of the forest, whose font was hollowed from 
the trunk of a tree, Pocahontas renounced the heathenism of her people, and in her 
broken English, uttered the responses in accordance with the rites of the Church of 
England. She was baptized under the name of Rebecca, and shortly after, April, 1613, 
was married to John Rolfe. 

Six vessels coming from England, with three hundred fresh emigrants, 
under the leadership of Thomas Gates, gave fresh life and prosperity to the colony. 
The land, which hitherto had been held in common, was now assigned, in 
portions, to individuals, as private property. A new charter, given in 161 2, enlarged the 
powers of the company, and the Indians submitted to the English, acknowledging 
themselves tributary to the king, an event which was brought about by the marriage of 
Pocahontas to John Rolfe, a union commemorated with approbation by the historians 
of Virginia, and to which many of her distinguished men trace their descent. When 
Dale went back to England, in 1616, Pocahontas and her husband went with him. She 
was received there with great attention and treated at court as a princess, but died in 
England the same year, at the age of twenty-one years. Rolfe, her husband, was the 
first one to cultivate tobacco largely in Virginia, and it soon became a valuable export 
to England, and was of great help in making the colony successful. 

The allotment of land to individuals greatly encouraged industry among the people, 
and tobacco soon became not only the staple product but the ordinary currency 
of the colony. In 161 8, many new emigrants came over from England, and the 
"Great Charter" was granted, under which the people of the colony had a voice in 
making their own laws, which was the beginning of free government in America, control 
of affairs being put in the hands of a governor, "a council of estate," and "a general 
assembly," thus establishing the threefold form of government which was afterward 
generally adopted in the colonies. 

In 1619, Sir George Yeardley was made governor, and under him the new charter 
was put in operation, so that more than a year before the Pilgrims in the Mayflower 
left the harbor of Southampton, the first elective assembly of the New World was 
organized at Jamestown, July 30, 1619, and made, in Virginia, laws for the government 



36 



OUR COUNTRY. 



of the people. This assembly took steps for the establishment of a college ; ordered that 
the Church of England should be the established church of Virginia; passed laws for the 
strict observance of the Sabbath ; for instruction of the Indians, and for other interests of 
the colony. 




BAPTISM OF POCAHONTAS. 



A bad element was introduced into the colony in 1619. when a hundred convicts 
arrived, having been sent over from English prisons, by order of the king, to be sold as 
servants. The same year was also marked by the arrival of the first African slaves, 
twenty of whom were brought to Jamestown by a Dutch trading vessel, thus laying the 
foundation of the slave system in the land. 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



37 



At this time there were in the colony only some six hundred men, women and 
children, but in the course of the year some twelve hundred and sixty persons, mostly of 
an excellent class, were added to their number. That the colony might be more firmly 
established, in 1619 ninety respectable young women 
were sent over to be married to the settlers, the cost of 
a wife being from a hundred to a hundred and fifty 
pounds of tobacco. Within three years some thirty-five 
hundred persons had found their way to Virginia. In 
162 1, the colony was granted a written constitution, 







under which representation in the 
government and a trial by jury 
became acknowledged as rights of 
the people. 

The colonists at various times 
had had trouble with the Indians, 
but in possession, as they were, of 
fire-arms, they felt confident of 
always being able to protect them- 
selves: and while Powhatan lived, 
the thirty tribes of which he was 
the head chief, numbering some twenty-four hundred warriors, remained peaceful and 
friendly. But afterward, becoming jealous of the growing power of the English, and 
fearing their complete ascendency, the Indians, while still pretending friendship, 
treacherously resolved on the destruction of the colony. Early in the spring of 1622, at 



INTRODUCTION OF SLAVERY. 



38 OUR COUNTRY. 

mid-day, they suddenly fell upon the unsuspectuig settlers, and murdered, with savage 
barbarity, three hundred and forty-six persons. Jamestown, and some of the settlements, 
through information given by a friendly Indian, were prepared for the attack, and so 
the greater part of the colony was saved. From this time on, for several years, there was 
almost continual warfare with the Indians, which ended at last in their complete 
subjugation, so that they dwindled away and were not afterward seriously troublesome. 

In 1624, the colony underwent an important change in its government. The 
London Company was dissolved by the king, and Virginia was made a royal province, 
and so continued for a hundred and fifty years, down to the time of the revolution, 
except during the protectorate of Cromwell. But though ruled by royal governors, the 
people still elected their own legislatures, which they regarded as the safeguard of their 
liberties. The slaves which, as mentioned, had been brought in by the Dutch in 1620, 
and sold to the planters, were found to be most profitably employed on the tobacco 
plantations, and as a consequence others were brought in, and so slavery was rapidly 
extended through the colony. Several times the legislature endeavored to put an end 
to the traffic, but England would not consent, as it was a source of revenue to the king 
and the English government. The value of slave labor, however, was found so great 
that the colonists gradually gave up their opposition to the system, and so it was 
fastened on the country. At a later date, Virginia, and so several other Southern States, 
seeing the evils of the system, strongly opposed its continuance, and Jefferson, speaking 
of its existence and influence, said, " I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is 
just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever." But the British authorities did 
everything in their power to encourage and sustain it, saying it was " the pillar and 
support of the British plantation trade in America," and that they " could not allow the 
colonies to check or discourage, in any degree, a traflfic so beneficial to the nation." And 
so slavery continued, until, as the result of secession, freedom came to the millions who 
had been held in slavery, and the entire country was free. 

During the time of Cromwell and the commonwealth in England, the Virginians 
remained loyal to the royal cause, and at one time sent and invited Charles II. to come 
from France and become their king. He accepted their invitation, and was about to 
embark for the colony, when, after the death of Cromwell and the downfall of the 
commonwealth, he was recalled to the throne of England. And on his accession as a 
reward for her loyalty, he allowed the colony to quarter the arms of England, Ireland, 
and Scotland with those of Virginia, as an independent member of the " Old Dominion," 
a name which, to this day, is often given to Virginia. 

In 1660, England passed what was known as the " Navigation Acts," the purpose of 
which was to control all the trade of the colonies, so that the Virginians, as well as- 
others, were no^ allowed to sell or buy any of their products or goods except to and 
from England, and everything was ordered to be carried in English vessels. These laws 
bore heavily on Virginia, and were among the causes of the Revolution. 

The progress of Virginia in population and wealth continued till the end of the 
colonial period, 1776, at which time its population was 575,000. The people were 
hospitable, the better class living mostly on plantations. Crime was rare, and theft 
almost unknown. The established religion of the colony was Episcopacy ; but religious 
freedom grew rapidly, so that at the Revolution two-thirds of the people were dissenters 
from the Episcopal church. Before the Revolution, education was neglected, and 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



39 



even in 1671, the governor, Sir William Berkeley, said he "thanked God that there 
were no free schools and no printing presses in Virginia, and no prospect of any for a 
hundred years to come," adding "God keep us from both!" But in 1688 some free 
schools were opened, and in 1692, the college of William and Mary was established. The 
professions of law and medicine for a long time were almost unknown ; and of the clergy, 
Bishop Meade, in his history of Virginia, says, " there was not only defective preaching, 
but most evil living among them." The planters, who were proud of their descent, were 
the influential and governing class, and from them, in the later days of the Revolution, 
came a set of leaders who have done the greatest services to the country and the greatest 
honor to the American name. A generation that could furnish such men as Washington, 




VIEW ON THE JAMES RIVER. 

Marshall, Patrick Henry, Jefferson, Madison, and many others like them, is one that is 
worthy of note, not only in the history of the United States, but in that of the English 
race and of the world. The firm and noble stand taken not only by such men, but by the 
great mass of the people of Virginia for their political rights, was of the greatest benefit 
as an example and stimulus to the other colonies, and greatly prepared the way for our 
independence as a nation. 

Virginia has an area of 38,352 square miles. Its geology, climate, soil and productions 
differ in different parts of the State. It is rich in minerals, which are various and of great 
value, especially its coal and iron. The western coal region, cut through by large rivers, 
is one of the most valuable in the world. Mineral springs abound. Among the 



40 OUK COUNTRY. 

curiosities of the State are the Natural Bridge in Rockbridge' county ; the Blowing Cave. 
that sends out a blast of cold air in summer, and draws in the air in winter; the Natural 
Tunnel, 70 feet high; the Hawk's Nest, a pillar 1,000 feet high; and several ebbing and 
flowing springs, as well as some of valuable medical properties. The Potomac is one of 
its chief rivers, and cuts through the Blue ridge at Harper's Ferry, which is so noted 
from its connection with the John Brown raid, and with many of the important military 
movements of the country. The State has eight colleges, including the State University, 
besides several important literary and theological institutions of a high order, and 
numerous state institutions of benevolence, besides those sustained by private benevolent 
associations. Its public school system was organized in 1870, and in 1875 its receipts for 
school purposes were over $[, 000,000. The population of the State in 1800 was 886,200, 
of whom 345,796 were slaves; in 1880, 1,512,565, and in 1890, 1,648,911. 



THE NEW ENGLAND AND OTHER COLONIES. 

New England was so named by Captain John Smith of Virginia, who, after his first 
return from Virginia to England, sailed to the American coast in 1614, for purposes of 
trade and discover)-. He examined the coast from the Penobscot river to Cape Cod, and 
made a map of the region, which was first printed in London in 1616. All this northern 
part of the United States had been granted by King James, in 1606, to the Plymouth 
Company, which had tried, but unsuccessfully, to found a colony in Maine, and it was 
dissolved in 1620, when a new company was formed, called the "Council for New- 
England," to which was granted all the territory from Nova Scotia to Pennsylvania, and 
extending from the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific. While this Council was considering its 
plans, a colony was founded in Massachusetts by the Pilgrims, at Plymouth, and a little 
later a settlement was made by the Puritans in the region of Massachusetts Bay, both 
settlements forming what afterward became Massachusetts. 

Mass.\chusetts. 

The Pilgrims of New England are sometimes improperly confounded with the 
Puritans, who came over to New England at a little later date. The Pilgrims came out 
from the Puritans of England, going beyond them in opposition to the views and 
ceremonies of the Church of England. The doctrines of the Reformation began at an 
early date to have influence in England, but it was not till the time of Henry VIII. that 
they greatly divided the people. Then, and in the following reigns, strong opposition 
arose against the teachings and ceremonies of the established English church, those who 
dissented from the church while yet remaining in it and seeking its purit}% being called 
Puritans, while those who separated themselves entirely from the establishment were 
called Separatists, and afterward were known as the Pilgrims, or the Pilgrim Fathers. 
The Puritans acknowledged the Church of England, but remained in it desiring, laboring, 
and hoping for its reform and greater purity. The Pilgrims went far beyond this, and 
denounced it as a corrupt and idolatrous institution, false to Christianity and to the truth. 

Being opposed and persecuted for their views in various ways in England, the 
Pilgrims, many of them, fled to Holland, under the lead of their pastor, John Robinson. 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 4I 

Remaining there some thirteen years, they finally resolved to emigrate to America, there 
to establish a colony where they might be free to carry out their views of religion and 
worship. Providing two ships, the Speedwell, of sixty, and the Mayflower, of a hundred 
and eighty tons, a part of their number embarked from Leyden. Twice they started, 
and twice put back, and at last the Mayflower sailed alone, with a hundred and two 
colonists, for the New World, September 6, 1620. They intended to go to the Hudson 
river, but after a stormy and trying passage, they landed, at last, at Plymouth, on the 
2 1st of December. The leaders were not, with some exceptions, men of high social 
position or of great wealth, but they were men of thought and conscience and high 
character, and they bore with them the seeds of a great nation, and of a great system of 
government. As they had no authority from the king or the company as to the future 
of their enterprise, they decided, before landing, to make a mutual agreement with each 
other as to their government, and they drew up the following voluntary and solemn 
compact providing for their organization into a "civil body politic" for securing "just 
and equal laws," to which they promised " all due submission and obedience." It was 
signed by all the men of the company, forty-two in number, and is as follows : 

The Compact. 

In the name of God. Amen: We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread 
sovereign, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain. France, and Ireland, king, defender of tjje 
faith, &c., having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of 
our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these 
presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and of one another, covenant and combine 
ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the 
ends aforesaid, and by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, 
acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the 
general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. 

In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names, at Cape Cod, the eleventh of November, 
in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord. King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, 
and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1G20. 

Under this compact, James Carver was unanimously chosen their governor for the 
first year. 

As they landed they found the region almost entirely unoccupied, for most of the 
Indians had a few years before been swept off by a desolating pestilence. The voyage 
had been severe; their provisions were limited; as they disembarked, the water was so 
shallow they had to wade ashore, and in the freezing weather severe colds were taken 
which brought on disease and suffering, so that forty-four of their number died before 
the winter was over, and at the end of the year more than one-half of them were dead. 
At one time only seven of their number were well enough to care for the sick. Fearing 
the Indians, some of whom had attacked the first exploring party, they levelled the 
graves of the dead, planting Indian corn over them to conceal the weakness of the 
colony from the natives. The rock on which they landed has been carefully preserved 
to this day; and their landing and the lofty character of their plans have been deservedly 
and widely celebrated both in prose and poetry, but no where in more soul-stirring lines 
than in those by Mrs. Hcmans, which have been read and admired in every land where 
tlie story of the "Pilgrim Fathers" has been told. 



42 OUR COUNTRY. 

The Landing of the Pilgrims. 

The breaking waves dashed high 

On a stern and rock-bound coast, 
And the woods against a stormy sky 

Their giant branches tossed; 
And the heavy night hung dark 

The hills and waters o'er, 
When a band of exiles moored their bark 

On the wild New England shore. 

Not as the conqueror comes, 

They, the true-hearted, came; 
Not with the roll of stirring drums, 

And the trumpet that sings of fame; 
Not as the flying come, 

In silence and in fear; — 
They shook the depths of the desert gloom 

With their hymns of lofty cheer. 

Amidst the storm they sang — 

And the stars heard, and the sea; 
And the sounding aisles of the dim vvoods rang 

To the anthems of the free! 
The ocean-eagle soared 
I From his nest by the white wave's foam; 

And the rocking pines of the forest roared, — 

This was their welcome home ! 

There were men with hoary hair 

Amidst that pilgrim band; — 
Why had they come to wither there. 

Away from childhood's land? 
There was woman's fearless eye. 

Lit by her deep love's truth; 
There was manhood's brow serenely high. 

And the fiery heart of youth. 

What sought they thus afar? 

Bright jewels of the mine? 
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? 

They sought a faith's pure shrine. 
Ay ! call it holy ground. 

The soil where first they trod; 
They have left unstained what there they found, — 

Freedom to worship God. 

As spring advanced the sickness and mortality decreased. But the hardships of 
privation and want had still to be encountered. At one time their provisions were so 
spent that they know not at night where to find food for the morning, and at another, 
they were reduced to a single pint of corn, which being parched and distributed, gave to 
each individual only five kernels. But through all their self-denials and sufferings their 
trust in the goodness and guidance of divine providence remained unshaken. They 
threw out trading posts, hunted, farmed, fished, worked, and patiently stayed on, and so 
laid the solid foundations of the future State. The details of their life and progress may 
seem trivial in themselves, but they rise to grandeur when judged by the after results. 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



43 



They were set down at the time, with minute care, by men Hke Bradford, who seemed to 
have an instinctive assurance that tlie future would long to know of their struggles for 
existence, and that he and his friends were laying one of the corner stones of a great and 
prosperous nation. The colony grew slowly, but it did its intended work, and opened 
the way for the great emigration and growth that were afterward to build up the 
powerful commonwealths of New England. 

The system of common property here, as in Virginia, had worked badly and caused 
much discontent. But after 1623 it was agreed that parcels of land should be allotted, 




PLYMOUTH ROCK, MASSACHUSETTS. 



SO that the members of every family could plant and cultivate for themselves, an 
arrangement that gave great satisfaction and led to universal industry, so that very soon 
enough was raised for quite a commerce with the Indians, who gladly bartered their 
beaver and other skins for the corn of the colonists and for the manufactured articles 
which these furs purchased from England. 

One day, in the spring of 1621, Samoset, an Indian who had learned a little English 
from the Penobscot fishermen, came into the settlement, saying in English, " Welcome, 



44 



OUR COUNTRY. 




THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 45 

Englishmen ! " He brought with him Squanto, another Indian, who had been in 
England, who taught the colonists the Indian way of cultivating corn, and also acted 
as interpreter between them and the other Indians. Massasoit, the sachem of a 
neighboring tribe, came also to visit the colony, and formed with them a treaty of 
friendship — -the oldest act of diplomacy recorded in the histoiy of New England — a 
treaty which was faithfully kept as long as he lived. 

The influence of the English over the Indians rapidly increased, many of the chiefs 
submitting themselves and their tribes to King James. One of them, Canonicus, the 
sachem of the Narragansetts, was for a time unfriendly, and sent to the governor a 
bundle of arrows wrapped in the skin of a rattle-snake, as a token of his hostility, but 
when Bradford returned the skin stuffed with powder and bullets, his courage failed, and 
he also made peace with the colony. Later than this a plot was formed by some of the 
Indians to destroy the English, but Massasoit revealed the plan to his allies, and 
Miles Standish, who had been appointed commander of the colony, seized the plotters 
suddenly, and put them to death with their own weapons, and so ended the danger. 

Though the colonists exercised self-government, and were at peace with the natives, 
the progress of population was very slow. The lands were not fertile, the climate was 
severe and unfavorable, and at the end of ten years the colony numbered only 
about three hundred souls. Robinson had died at Leyden, and the remainder of the 
Pilgrims had come over from Holland to the colony, which afterwards acquired rights at 
Cape Ann and Kennebec, and also made a settlement on tlie Connecticut river. By a 
charter from William III., in 1629, the colony was united to the colony of 
Massachusetts, of which its territory thus became a part. 

To enjoy religious liberty had been the great object of the first comers of the 
Plymouth colony. Their form oi government was most simple. For more than 
eighteen years the legislature was made up of the whole body of the male inhabitants ; 
the governor was chosen by vote, and had several assistant councilors ; and the State 
was a strict democracy. But in 1639, as the population increased and the territory 
was extended, the system became representative, and each town sent its committee or 
delegates to the general court. 

As guides and pioneers, the Pilgrims set the example of popular government, and 
moulded the civil and religious character of our country, laying broad and deep the 
foundations of republican freedom and national independence and prosperity. They 
were a thoughtful, intelligent, thrifty. God-fearing people; for their age, were liberal 
Christians, and never chargeable with the religious persecutions for which the 
Puritans of the Massachusetts colony have been blamed. 

Not long after the Pilgrims came to Plymouth, other English people had visited the 
coasts of New England for exploration, fishing and traffic with the natives. At an early 
day Martin Pring had discovered New Hampshire; John Smith had visited the coast of 
Maine, and John Mason had established settlements at Portsmouth and Dover. And in 
1622 thirty-five vessels were fishing on the coasts of New England, and settlements had 
been begun which afterward became the colonies of New Hampshire and Maine. 

The Puritans in England had now greatly increased in numbers, and afterward, in 
the time of Cromwell, they controlled the government. Now, however, they were 
opposed and persecuted, and seeing the growing success of the Plymouth colony, a 
number of their leading and wealthy members formed a company to send out other 



A^ 



OUR COUNTRY. 




SILVER CASCADE, CRAWFORD'S NOTCH, WHITE MOUNTAINS. 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



47 



settlers to Now England. This company calling themselves the "Company of 
Massachusetts Bay," made purchase, in 1628, of extensive lands on the Bay, extending 
westward, as was supposed, to the Pacific ocean; and having in 1629 received a charter 
from King Charles, they sent out a party of Puritans, under John Endicott, which settled 
in Salem, and there laid the foundation of the colony of Massachusetts Bay. Others 
followed, the same summer, and settled at Charlestown. 

In 1630 the charter and powers of government were transferred from the company in 
England to the colony, thus giving the colonists the right of governing themselves, the 
result of which was that a large number of Puritans, of influence and wealth, resolved to 
leave England for the colony. In the summer of the year, a fleet of thirteen vessels 
brought out fifteen hundred Puritan settlers, and with them horses, cattle, goats, and all 
things necessary for planting, fishing, ship-building, &c. With them came John 

Winthrop, as governor of the colony. He 
was greatly respected and esteemed by 
the people, and was frequently re-elected 
as governor. After being si.xty-one days 
at sea, the Arbella landed her passengers; 
Boston was made the capital of the colony, 
and a church was organized with John 
Wilson as pastor. The colony, as usual, 
had many hardships and discouragements, 
and a hundred or more of their number, 
disheartened and fearing famine and death, 
went back to England. Before December 
some two hundred of their number had 
died, but the survivors persevering, brighter 
days came on, and between 1630 and 1640, 
some twenty thousand persons had come 
o\'er to the colony. The people were 
thrifty and persevering, cultivating the 
ground, caring for their flocks and herds, 
fishing and hunting for food, and exporting 
cured fish, lumber, and furs of various 
kinds, which brought them, in return from 
England, articles of comfort and luxury. 
The laws were made by a legislature 
elected by vote of the citizens who were 
church members, till 1686, when the charter was taken away by James II., and the 
legislature abolished; but in 1692, a new and favorable charter was granted by King 
William, and Massachusetts continued to be a royal province down to the time of 
Independence in 1776. 

From the days of the revolution Massachusetts has had a steady and healthful 
growth. The State has an area of 7,800 square miles. The country is hilly, and much of 
the soil is sterile, so that less than one-half of the acreage of the State is improved 
in farming, but in the low grounds, and especially in the river valleys, it is fertile. 
The great prosperity of the State, however, is not from agriculture, but from its great 
manufacturing and commercial interests, in which it is relatively in advance of any of the 




OLD SOUTH CHURCH, BOSTON. 



48 



OUR COUNTRY. 



States. The fisheries of the State have also been one of its leading industries. It has 
numerous rivers and streams giving waterfalls of great power for manufacturing purposes, 
as at Lawrence Lowell, and Turner's Falls. 

In the State are some seven thousand schools of various grades, a university, and 
seven colleges, theological, medical, law, scientific, and industrial schools, and 
numerous hospitals and charitable institutions, and the railroad connections, thousands of 
miles in extent, give abundant channels for travel and transportation of every kind. 

In the early days of Massachusetts the colonists suffered greatly from the hostility 
of the Indians. In 1675, King Philip's war broke out, lasting more than a year, and 
causing great loss of life and property. No less than twelve or thirteen towns were 




l-'AI.I.S, MA^SACIirSETTS. 



destroyed by the Indians, and over six hundred houses were burned. In one conflict 
twenty of the colonists were killed. It was during this war that an attack was made 
upon Hadley, on a morning when the people were all in church. Suddenly the Indians 
rushed in and surrounded the meeting-house, and though the people rushed to arms for 
resistance, all was alarm and confusion. Suddenly, in the midst of the people, 
appeared a man of venerable appearance, but dressed differently from the people, who 
took the command, and arranged and ordered the men in the best militar\- manner. Led 
bv him they repelled and routed the enemy, and saved the town. Then the stranger 
immediately disappeared, and the inhabitants, not being able to account for the 
ohenomenon in any other way, believed that he must have been specially sent by God for 
their deliverance, and for some time afterward seemed persuaded that they had been 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 49 

saved by an angel taking the form of man. Nor did they know who their deliverer was 
till some twenty years afterward, when it became known that it was Goffe, one of the two 
regicide judges who had been secreted there^ 

Massachusetts, in its colonial days, was deeply involved in the struggles between 
England and France for control in the New World, which did not cease till the union of 
Canada to England, and of the vast region then known as Louisiana to Spain. From 
the earliest days the people of the New England colonies were a highly intelligent and 
thinking people, and their leaders were men of thorough education and just and broad 
views of legislation and civil and social rights. In 1650, in the Massachusetts Bay colony 
one in every two hundred of the people was a graduate of an English university, and 
many of them had been as prominent and distinguished in England as they afterward 
were in the New World. In the controversies that led to the revolution, and in the war 
itself, as in all the steps that led to our independence and to the formation of the new 
republic, Massachusetts took a leading part, and most of the ablest leaders in the great 
work were from Massachusetts and Virginia. In 1790, the population of the State was 
378,787; in 1880, 1,783,085, and in 1890, 2,333,407. 



Connecticut. 

The valley of the Connecticut river had early become an object of desire and 
competition to the settlers of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth, as it had also to the 
Dutch. Its territory had first been granted to the Earl of Warwick, and then to Lord 
Brook and Lord Say and Sele and their assigns. A trading-house had early 
been established at Windsor by the Plymouth people, and another by the Dutch, at 
Hartford, and small settlements had been made in one or two other places, but the great 
body of the future possessors of the rich Connecticut valley came from Massachusetts. 

In 1635, John Winthrop, the younger, came out from England as governor of 
Connecticut, under the patent of Lord Brook and Lord Say and Sele, and took formal 
possession of the country, tore down the Dutch arms where ever they had been placed, 
and built a fort at Saybrook. In the spring of the next year, Thomas Hooker, " the 
light of the western churches," led to Hartford a colony of some hundred souls, 
gathered from the most valuable citizens of the Massachusetts settlement. Going on 
foot through the wilderness, with no guide but the compass, and no resting place at 
night but the ground, they drove before them their herds of cattle, and reaching the 
Connecticut river, founded the settlements of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, 
forming the " Connecticut colony." 

For a time there was trouble between the English and the Dutch, as both claimed 
Connecticut, but the former at last gained full possession, and in 1644 the Saybrook 
settlement was united with the Connecticut colony. The settlements thus united were 
exposed to many perils, especially from the Indians. The colonists numbered, in all, 
only some two hundred persons, while the Pequots, who were hostile, had some seven 
hundred warriors, who soon began raiding and burning on the outlying farms, and 
murdering the inhabitants. Men going to their work were killed and scalped and 
horribly mangled. At Wethersfield a man was taken by them and roasted alive, and ten 
persons were massacred, and two girls carried away. 
4 



50 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Roused by these atrocities, war was declared by the colony, and Captain John 
Mason, with seventy-seven men and reinforcements of friendlj' Indians from the 
Narragansett and Nyantic tribes, attaci<ed and burned their intrenched fort, or walled 
village, which was filled with their wigwams, and contained seven hundred of their 




NIGHT ATTACK ON EARLY SETTLERS. 



warriors. This stronghold, which the Indians seemed to think impregnable, was set on 
fire on the end at which a strong wind was blowing, and the flames at once swept fiercely 
through its whole length. It had but two openings, both of which were occupied by 
Mason's men. The Indians, in attempting to escape from the flames, were at once shot 
down as they rushed forth. And, the English throwing firebrands among the wigwams, 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 5 1 

also, the whole village was soon in a blaze, and most of the savages suffered the same 
horrible death they were fond of inflicting on their captives. Only five of the six or 
seven hundred Pequots within the inclosure escaped with their lives, while only two of 
the colonists were killed and sixteen wounded in the conflict. The remnants of the 
savages were pursued into their hiding places; every wigwam was burned, every 
settlement broken up, and every cornfield laid waste, so that the Pequots, as a body, 
practically disappeared, and the warlike tribe which had gloried in its power, aqd had 
carried on its fierce warfare against the colonists, was wiped out of existence. Such 
terrible vengeance had never been known to the Indians, and the name of Englishmen 
now became a terror to the savages, so that for thirty-eight years the colonists were 
undisturbed and at peace, thus having time to perfect their constitution on principles 
which have stood the test of more than two centuries, and have made Connecticut what 
it is to-day. They toiled at their farms, organized society, opened schools, levied 
taxes, built churches, and established a purely democratic government, with the first 
written constitution known, not only in America, but the first ever known in the world, 
a constitution that gave them unqualified powers to govern themselves — to elect their 
own officers, make their own laws, administer justice, inflict punishments, and confer 
pardons, without appeals to England ; in a word, to exercise everj' power as an 
independent colony, which it was in everything but in name. The first governor was 
John Haynes, who had already held the same office in Massachusetts. The second was 
Edward Hopkins, and these two were elected alternately to the governorship for 
many years. 

During the Pequot war another Puritan settlement sprang up at New Haven, in 
1638, under the lead of John Davenport, as its minister, and Theophilus Eaton, a 
wealthy London merchant, who afterward was annually elected governor (for twenty 
years) till his death. The colonists, coming from Massachusetts, settled on the sound, 
west of the Connecticut river, where they lived for a year under no rule but an agreement 
to obey the scriptures, after which they met in a barn and formed a church, which was 
itself the State — church membership and citizenship being identical. Two months later 
they formed a civil government — an independent religious democracy, much like that of 
Connecticut, but more strict, in that it confined citizenship to church members. Both 
the settlements steadily increased, laws were codified, and the boundaries between them 
and the Dutch were settled. In 1657 John Winthrop was chosen governor of 
Connecticut. The New Haven and Connecticut colonies remained separate governments 
till 1665, when, by Charles II., they were united in one, as "Connecticut." 

The charter, under which they were united, gave the colonists unlimited power to 
order their own government, to make their own laws, choose their own officers, to 
administer justice without appeal to England, to grant pardons, in a word, to exercise 
every power in legislation and action. It made Connecticut independent in everything 
but in name ; and where Charles and Clarendon were, as they supposed, making a close 
corporation, they had, in fact, authorized an established democracy. The charter which 
the younger Winthrop had obtained, extended the limits of Connecticut from the 
Narragansett river to the Pacific ocean, not only giving peace and prosperity to the 
colony for more than a hundred years, but preparing the way for the claim to those 
western lands, the sale of which afterward gave to the State its large school fund for the 
education of its children and youth. 



5^ 



OUR COUNTRY. 



The charter which, in 1662, had been granted by Charles was the most Hberal ever 
given to any American colony. This charter, however, was annulled by James II., who 
was opposed to its free government. But the charter itself was not lost, for when 
Andros, who was sent out as royal governor, went to Hartford to demand it from the 
Assembly, the lights of the room where they met were suddenly blown out, and the 
charter was spirited away and hidden in the famous old "Charter Oak," from which, at 
the end of Andros' tyrannical rule, in 1689, it was brought forth, and, under King 
William the colony again enjoyed all its former privileges, their government under that 
old charter continuing the same for a hundred and eighty years, till long after 
Connecticut became a State. 

In character, the people were intelligent, thrifty, industrious, liberty-loving, and 
earnest advocates of education. They were moral and religious. Every town and 




VALE COLLEGE, CONNECTICUT. 



village had a scholar for its minister. So honest were the people that bolts and locks 
were unknown. The frugality of private life made public expenditures comparatively 
small. Farming interests in the colony were prospered. The amusements of the people 
were rational as well as joyous; and for a century the history of the colony, with few and 
short exceptions, was a picture of general comfort and happiness. 

An excellent system of common schools was early established (in 1644), and the 
State, in later years, had a large school fund to aid it. Yale college was founded in 1700, 
and received its charter in 1701. It was commenced by ten ministers of the colony, each 
laying down a few books — in all about forty, — each saying as they did so, " I give these 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 53 

books for the founding of a college in this colony," and from this humble beginning has 
arisen the great university, which in 1890 had 147 professors and teachers, and 1,645 
students in its various departments, and which in the same year received in donations to 
its funds over a million and a half dollars. The college buildings, a part of which are 
shown in the cut, occupy one of the large squares of the city and front on another, on 
which stand several churches and public buildings, and the design is to have the present 
and future structures in time form an enclosed quadrangle. In the State are also Trinity 
college, the Wesleyan university, several schools of law, medicine, and theology, and 
numerous seminaries, academies, and private schools of a high order. 

The soil and climate of Connecticut are less favorable to agriculture than those of 
many of the newer States, but as a State it stands high in manufactures of various kinds, 
and its commerce is carried on with every part of the world. 

The early settlers of the colony had all the religious earnestness of their age ; but 
the spirit of persecution was never known in Connecticut. Their laws were strict, 
extending to the customs and moralities of social and private life, though what is known 
as the " Blue Laws," wliich many associate with Connecticut, never had an existence. 
What are so called were malignantly written by Samuel Peters, a renegade tory who was 
banished from the colony, and of whom Trumbull, the historian, says, " he was known as 
the greatest liar in the colony." One of Peters' stories was, that the Connecticut river in 
passing through the narrow gorge at Bellows Falls was so compressed that an iron 
crowbar would float on its surface like a chip or a dr).' leaf. And much of his " Blue 
Laws," is about as credible as this story. 

The colony was active and energetic in the early wars with the Indians and French, 
and was among the most zealous of the colonies in the war of the Revolution, and in the 
war of the Secession the State did her full share, both in men and money for the support 
of the government. In every part of her history she has furnished to the country men 
who have been eminent in literature as well as men distinguished in our State and 
National councils, as also in the various professions and the callings of business life, and 
from her borders large numbers have gone forth to be pioneers and leaders in the rising 
and flourishing States of the West. 

When the celebrated "Dark Day" occurred. May 19, 1780, covering, with its deep 
shadow, the country from Maine to New Jersey, the darkness was most intense in 
Connecticut and Rhode Island, spreading there the gloom almost of midnight. The 
legislature of Connecticut was in session at the time in Hartford, and the alarm at the 
strange phenomenon was so great that the impression spread that the end of the world 
and the day of judgment were coming. The house of representatives adjourned, and it 
was proposed also to Davenport, the presiding officer of the council, also to adjourn that 
body. " No," was his prompt and Spartan-like reply, "if the day of judgment is not 
approaching, there is no cause for adjournment; and if it is, I choose to be found doing 
my duty"; and he ordered the candles to be brought in. 

As another interesting incident connected with the early history of Connecticut, 
after the accession of Charles II., three of the regicide judges, who had passed tlie 
sentence of death on Charles I., fled for safety to this country, and two of them, Gofle 
and Whalley, came to New Haven. They were followed and searched for by officers of 
the king from England, who, if they had been successful in their search, would have 
taken them back to certain and cruel death. Reverend John Davenport was, at that time, 



54 OUR COUNTRY. 

the minister of the cliurcli at New Haven, and though the officers were in the place, yet 
with the fearless independence of one of the old Puritans, he at once preached a sermon 
from Isaiah XVI., 3, 4: "Take counsel; execute judgment; make thy shadow as the 
night in the midst of noon-day; hide the outcasts; betray not him that wandereth ; let 
thine outcasts be with thee ; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler," &c. 
It is hardly needful to say the people were of the same mind and spirit as their pastor, 
and that the regicides were concealed by them, and for a long time were hidden at 
"West Rock," in a cave still known as the Judges' Cave, where they were visited and 
cared for, and all their wants were secretly supplied, until, when the officers, foiled at 
every step of their search, went back to England, the wanderers, under assumed names, 
came forth from the place of their refuge, and quietly lived in New Haven until the -end 
of their days. 

The population of Connecticut at the breaking out of the Revolution was 200.000; 
in 1880, 622,700; in 1890, 745,861. 

Rhode Island. 

The settlement of Rhode Island was begun by Roger Williams, who was banished 
from Massachusetts in 1635 for opposing the views of that colony on the subject of 
religion and government, both which were closely united in the plans of the colonists for 
their commonwealth. He was driven out, not, as is often said, merely because he 
believed in freedom of conscience as to religious matters, but because he insisted that the 
magistrates should have rule only in civil affairs, and that the people, in all other things, 
should be responsible only to God. These views were then regarded as politically 
disorganizing and dangerous, as they were opposed to the fundamental laws of the colony. 
Being banished, Williams passed a long and dreary winter among the Narragansett 
Indians, and finally, with five companions, established a little settlement at a place called 
Seekonk, at the head of Narragansett Bay, to which he gave the name of Providence, in 
recognition as he said, of "God's merciful providence to him in his distress." His 
doctrine, as already said, was, that the magistrates should have authority only in civil 
matters, and that there should be perfect freedom to all as to religious opinions, for 
which he claimed that men were responsible only to God; and it was not for holding 
these opinions, but because in carrying them out in practice he opposed the established 
government of the colony, th<it he was banished from its borders. Two years later 
another conflict of opinion in Massachusetts brought fresh e.xiles to Rhode Island, and 
Anne Hutchinson and her friends, buying land from the Indians, made a settlement at 
Portsmouth, as afterward, in 1639, some of their number went further south and founded 
Newport. 

In 1643, Williams went to England, and came back the ne.xt year with a charter, 
which united these several settlements into one colony, and soon after the people met 
and framed a constitution, allowing to all perfect religious liberty. In 1663, a royal 
charter was obtained from Charles II., naming the colony " Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations." This charter, which was the only constitution of the colony for one 
hundred and eighty years, was most liberal in all its provisions, and under it a popular 
elective government was established in 1664, with Arnold as governor, and Williams as 
one of the assistants. By 1672, the Quakers had come in in great numbers so as soon tO' 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



55 




srain a controlline influence and 
to make one of their own 

In the 
Indian war with PhiUp, Rhode 
Island suffered not a httle, and was the 
scene of many massacres and much hard 
fightmg, and, like other colonies, was not 
free from troubles both abroad and at 
home. But the colony grew steadily, 
though slowly; its government became 
settled, and trade prospered to the end of 
colonial times. 

Rhode Island is the smallest of all the 
States, having an area of only 1,306 square 



56 OUR COUNTRY. 

miles. The country is hilh', and the surface of the soil rough and stony, devoted chiefly 
to pasturage and orchards. The climate is mild, and on the islands, and where bordering 
on the ocean, is for a large part of the year invigorating and delightful. Newport is 
noted as one of the most fashionable summer resorts in the whole country, and abounds 
in attractive scenery and elegant mansions. More than one-half of the population of the 
State is said to be employed in manufactories. Providence has extensive manufactures 
of machinery, steam engines, jewelry of various kinds, and cotton and woolen goods, and 
for print cloths is the leading market in the United States. Large quantities of 
merchandise of various kinds is landed and shipped at its docks for the Boston trade. 
Brown Uni\^ersity, which was founded in 1764, has become one of the leading colleges of 
the country. The public schools, which are excellent, are supported by State, town, 
district and other taxes, and the normal and private schools of the State are of a high 
order. A newspaper was established at Newport as early as 1732. At the opening of 
the Revolution the population of the State was 50,000; in 1880, it was 276,581, and in 
1S90, 345.343- 

New Hampshire. 

New Hampshire was different from the other New England colonies, in the one 
respect that it was not all the time a separate colony, but at different times formed part 
of Massachusetts. In 1622, Ferdinand Gorges and John Mason obtained a grant of land 
" bounded by the Merrimac and Kennebec rivers, and the ocean and the river of 
Canada," that is the St. Lawrence; and the next year small settlements were made by 
them at Portsmouth and Dover; and when, in 1629, Gorges and Mason dissoKed 
partnership, Mason obtained a new grant for the territory between the Merrimac and 
the Piscataqua rivers, naming it New Hampshire. 

In the next few years the region was divided among several proprietors, which led 
to disputes and lawsuits, and the settlers, suffering greatly from the Indians, were led to 
put themselves under the protection of Massachusetts, which they did in 1641, and so 
continued for thirty-nine years, till 1680, when New Hampshire was made a royal 
province. During the two years of the despotic rule of Andros, 1686-88, New 
Hampshire, like the other colonies, lost her independence; but in. 1690, when Andros 
was overthrown. New Hampshire again put itself under the protection of Massachusetts, 
and so remained united to and a part of it till 1741, when it was finally separated and 
made a royal colony. 

Before this. New Hampshire, like all the early colonies, had suffered under 
difficulties and troubles with .several of the royal governors, but now had time for quiet 
and progress. She furnished men and money for the attack on Louisburg, and took an 
active part in the French war, as also in the conflicts with the Indians. No colony sent 
better troops to the field, and her " Rangers," trained to a knowledge of savage warfare, 
gained a continental reputation. The colony was greatly prosperous till the British 
policy of taxation began, when the excitement caused by the Stamp Act spread through 
the people, and led New Hampshire into the movements which united the colonies and 
prepared the way for the overthrow of the English power in America. 

The State of New Hampshire has an area of 9,280 .square miles. Its population, 
except the foreigners coming in, by immigration, chiefly to the manufacturing towns, is 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND OKICIXAI. STATES. 



57 




58 



OUR COUNTRY. 



almost entirely descended from the original settlers who came from England, Scotland, 
and the early New England colonies. It is a State of mountains and lakes, and has been 
called "the Switzerland of America." The White Mountain range is mainly in the 
central part of the State, its highest summit, Mount Washington, being 6,285 feet high. 
The celebrated "Notch" in this range is two miles long, and in the narrowest part only 
twenty-two feet wide, affording a passageway to the road and to a mountain stream. 




ST. JOHNS RIVER, FRONTIERS OF NFW BRUNSWICK AND MAINE. 



The soil, except in valleys and by the streams, is better fitted for pasturage than for 
culture. Numerous waterfalls give motive power to the many cotton, woolen, and iron 
factories, paper mills, &c., which are valuable industries to the State. Its foreign 
commerce is very small, Portsmouth being its only port of entry. Like all the New 
England colonies. New Hampshire suffered much from Indian wars and depredations 
during the colonial period. And in later days it has furnished a multitude of emigrants 
to the newer and more fertile western States. The State has an excellent system of free 
schools, a college, several noted academies, literary institutes, scientific and engineering 
schools, a medical school, and a school or college of agriculture and the mechanic arts. 
Railroads connect every part of the State with other parts of the Union. Population in 
1880, 346,991; in 1890, 375,827. 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



59 



Maine. 

Maine was not one of the thirteen colonies which, as such, engaged in the war of the 
Revolution, for at that ■ time it was not a separate colony, but was a part of 
Massachusetts. As early, some think, as 990, the coast was discovered by the Northmen, 
and was visited by them occasionally until the middle of the fourteenth century, though 
they founded no settlement upon it. From 1350 to 1498, which was the time of Cabot's 
second expedition, there is no evidence that the coast was seen by Europeans. In 1524, 
it was visited by the French, under Verrazano ; in 1525, by the Spaniards, under Gomez, 
and in 1527, by the English, under Rut; but none of these made any settlement within 
its borders. 

The first attempt to settle on the territory Was made by the French, under Du Mont, 
in 1604; but his plans were unsuccessful. In 1605, part of the coast was explored by 
Weymouth ; and in 1607, by an expedition sent out by Popham and Gorges, which made 
a settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec river, which, however, came to an end in the 




EAR llAKIKiK, MAINE. 



following year. In 161 3, the French Jesuits established a mission on Mount Desert 
island, but were soon driven off by the English. In 1616, Richard Vines, an agent of 
Gorges, was at Saco ; and a company under Captain John Smith ranged the coast as far 
as Cape Cod; and Smith made a map of the region, to which he gave the name of " New 
England." In 1620, James I. gave part of the territory to the Plymouth Company, and 
part to the Virginia Company ; and, in 1623, Gorges and Mason, under a grant from the 
Plymouth colony, planted a colony at the mouth of the Piscataqua river, which was the 
first permanent settlement in Maine. 



6o 



OUR COUNTRY. 




After 1630, settlements were 
made at five different places, most 
of which by 1675 had been 
broken up and destroyed by the 
Indians, who for years were in 
constant conflict with the settlers. 
After several changes, the part of 
the country which had been held 
by Gorges, and afterward by the 
Duke of York, was surrendered to 
xMassachusetts in 1686, and title 
to it was confirmed by charter in 
1 69 1 ; and by the treaty of 1783, 
at the close of the Revolutionary 
War, Massachusetts obtained full 
control and exercised jurisdiction 
over the territory, which was then 
called "the district" or "province 
of Maine," till 1820, when it was 
admitted to the Union as an 
independent State. At the time 
of the Revolution, Maine, of 
course, was not one of the 
thirteen colonies which, as such, 
engaged in the war, but her 
people were fully interested and 
active in all the measures that led 
on to our independence. 



oil- IllE LUAil 111- MAINE. 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



6i 



The surface of the State is diversified, much of it being flat on the sea coast, while 
back from the coast it is hilly or mountainous, the great Apalachian chain, of which 
the White Mountains are a part, crossing the State in a southwest direction. The region 
abounds in lakes, both large and small, which, with the various rivers cover some 3,200 
square miles or nearly one-tenth of the surface of the State. The State is well supplied 
with minerals, though the metallic ores have not been much worked. Marble, slate, and 
limestone are abundant, and granite of the finest quality is both abundant and profitably 
worked. The great forests in the central and northern parts of the State have in the 
past furnished immense quantities of lumber, but are fast diminishing under the 




V"'>«*^^^, 



VIEW IN ACADIA. 



lumberman's axe. One of the chief industries of the State is that of shipbuilding ; the 
fisheries employ several hundreds of vessels, and are highly profitable, as are also the 
manufacturing interests of the people. 

A part of what is now Nova Scotia, was originally part of Maine, and was known as 
Acadia. It was settled by the French in 1603, and prospered as a colony, but in 1654 
the French were subdued by forces sent out by Cromwell. The region was afterward 
ceded to the French, in 1667; but in 1713 was restored to the English. But when in the 
war between the English and French, the inhabitants refused on the one hand to aid the 
former, or to bear arms against the latter, the whole colony was cruelly broken up by the 
English, and its inhabitants, some thousands in number, were forcibly carried away from 



62 



OUR COUNTRY. 




SCENE IN MAINE. 



their homes, and scattered to every part of 
the country. The sad event, with its barbar- 
ous treatment, furnished to Longfellow the 
subject of his Evangeline, one of the most interesting 
and admired of all his publications. 
The State has fourteen ports of entr>% to and from 
which an active commerce is carried on with every part 
of the world. It has a good system of common schools, 
and also many free high schools, two normal schools, 
three colleges, a theological seminary, a college of 
agriculture and mechanic arts, and several flourishing 
seminaries of a high order. The islands and coasts of 
Maine are more and more becoming favorite resorts for 
summer rest and recreation, places like Bar Harbor 
and Mount Desert being crowded with visitors for the 
season. The population of Maine in 1880 
was 648,926, and in 1890, 660,261. 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



63 



Vermont. 

Vermont, the " Green Mountain State," never 
was a formal colony, and does not appear on any 
of the early maps of New England. It was 
not settled till 1724, when people from 
Massachusetts, supposing it to be within the 
bounds of that colony, built Fort Dumm'er, 
where Brattleboro now stands. In the 
French war of 1745, soldiers marched 
from this fort, and also from the New 
Hampshire colony, against the French, 
who occupied points along Lake 
Champlain. The rich and fertile lands 
through which they passed attracted the 







attention of these soldiers, most 
of whom were farmers, and 
after the French war 
i755-58> emigrants began to 
come in in large numbeis. ^ 
Much of the tcrntoi-y on 
which they settled w is claimed 
by New Hampshire, aUo j) irt of it 
by New York, under former grants 
from Charles II. 



TROUT STRE.^M IN VERMONT. 



64 OUR COUNTRY. 

In 1776, the people petitioned Congress to be admitted to the Union, but through 
the influence of New York, their request was denied. In the following year, the settlers 
declared themselves an independent and sovereign State, under the name of Vermont, and 
so continued until 1791, when their rights were recognized by Congress, and they were 
admitted to the Union. New York was paid $30,000 for relinquishing her territorial 
claims, Vermont paying that amount to end the controversy, and New Hampshire 
relinquishing her claims altogether. 

The leaders and soldiers of Vermont were faithful to the country through the war of 
the Revolution. A month before the battle of Bunker Hill, Ethan Allen, with his 
troops, had thundered at the gates of Fort Ticonderoga, and demanded its surrender, as 
tradition says, " in the name of Almighty God and the Continental Congress"; and it was 
chiefly the militia forces of Vermont that gained the victory of Plattsburg, in 1812. 
The State also contributed largely to the Union forces in the war of the Secession. 
The resolute spirit of the leaders as well as of the troops of Vermont, is well illustrated 
in Halleck's lines as to Stark, the noted general of Bennington. Speaking of the battle 
in which Stark led on the troops in the days of the Revolution, the poet says: 

When on that field the band of Hessians fought, 

Briefly he spoke, before the fight began; 
"Soldiers! those German gentlemen are bought 

For four pounds eight and seven pence per man. 
By England's king, — a bargain, as 'tis thought. 

Are we worth more? Let's prove it, now we can; 
For we must beat them, boys, ere set of sun. 

Or Mary Stark's a wido-u ! " It was done ! 

The area of Vermont is 10,213 square miles. Its surface is rather hill)- than 
mountainous, though in tlie Green Mountain range are eminences 2,000 to 5,000 feet 
high, but bearing vegetation and cultivated to their summits. Slate, iron ore, and soap 
stone are found, and also rich quarries of valuable marble. The soil is a rich loam ; the 
country is well wooded, an.d the hills well adapted for pasturage ; and the State has fine 
scenery, a healthful climate, and several beautiful waterfalls. It has a university, three 
colleges, several professional institutions, three normal schools, numerous excellent 
academies, and a good system of common schools. In the State, also, there are 
numerous manufactories in active and profitable operation. The population of the State 
in the past has increased but slowly, and in the last ten years has slightly decreased, 
owing to the constant emigration to the western States. In 1880 it was 332,286, and in 
1890, 33-,205. 

New York. 

New York was. the only one of the American colonies that was settled by the 
Dutch, who came from Holland. The first white man who is known to have been w'ithin 
the present boundaries of the State, was Samuel Champlain, the French navigator, who 
sailed down the lake, which was named after him, in July, 1609, thus antedating by two 
months, Hudson's discovery from the sea. In September of the same year, Henry 
Hudson, an Englishman, then in the service of the Dutch government, landed on 
Manhattan island, now New York, and discovered the river now bearing his name. Soon 



THE EARLV COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



65 




66 



OUR COUNTRY. 



afterward, in 1615, the merchants of Holland organized the New Netherland Company, 
and sent out ships for traffic with the Indians, and two trading-posts were established, 
one on the island, and one up the river, near where Albany now stands. 

In 1621, the Dutch West India Company obtained a patent for the territory of the 
New Netherlands, which, they claimed, stretched from the Connecticut river to Delaware. 
In 1623, they sent out a number of families, and founded New Amsterdam, now New 
York, on Manhattan island, which they bought from the Indians for sixty guilders — 

about twenty-five 
dollars. In 1624, they 
established Fort 
Orange, now Albany. 
In 1626, they sent out 
Peter Minuets as the 
first governor, who 
proved himself an able 
administrator and wise 
governor. He was fol- 
lowed by Wouter Von 
Twiller, then by Sir 
William Keift, and then 
by Peter Stuyvesant, 
these four governors 
ruling the New 
Netherlands till 1664; 
At this date, the Dutch 
settlements, which had 
been growing slowly 
but steadily, had a 
population of about ten thousand persons. The Dutch also had settlements on the 
Connecticut and Delaware rivers, and thus had troubles both with the English and the 
Swedes, as they also had with the Indians, but these difficulties werfe overcome by the 
energy of Stuyvesant. 

The English, however, claimed the whole region of the New Netherlands as 
belonging to them, founding their claim on the discovery by the Cabots ; and armed 
vessels were sent out from England to demand the territory for the Duke of York, to 
whom it had been granted by Charles II. At this demand, the city was surrendered to 
the English, September 8, 1664, and the whole province, as well as Manhattan island, 
took the name of New York. The city of New York, at this time, had a population of , 
only about fifteen hundred, most of them speaking the Dutch language. Under the 
English, everything proceeded quietly, with little apparent change, except the new 
English officers and names. The Dutch customs still prevailed, and, except tax 
difficulties on Long Island, there was peace and comfort everywhere. This, however, 
was broken up by the second war between England and Holland, in which, in 1673, a 
Dutch fleet attacked New York, and the city was compelled to surrender ; but in the 
next year, by the treaty of Westminster, the province was ceded to England, and so 
remained under British rule till the time of our Independence, when the Dutch power 
finally disappeared from America. 




SKETCH OF NIAGAKA FALLS Lil;A\VN 1;V FATIILK HI.NNLILN L\ I(ji_)6. 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND GRIGLN'AL STATES. 




At this time, 
Edmund Andros 
became governor, 
and ruled the pro- 
vince for eight 
years. In 1683, the 
people were granted 
the right of repre- 
sentation, but this 
was soon taken 
away, and printing 
presses and the 
holding of the 
Assembly were for- 
bidden. Before the 
Revolution, New 
York was repeat- 
edly engaged in 
warfare with the 
Indians, and in the 
wars between the 
English and the 
French in the con- 
test for supremacy 
in the country, and 
the State took an 
active and energetic 
part in the war of 
the Revolution, as 
will be seen in the 
subsequent notice 
of that struggle. 
From the time of 
King William, 1689, 
to the Revolution, 
New York contin- 
ued to be a royal 
province, ruled by 
the king's govern- 
ors, the colony 
being allowed a 
legislature, though 
it had no charter of 
liberties like the 
colonies of New 
England. 



NIAGARA FALLS, AMERICAN SIDE. 



68 OUR COUNTRY. 

The early settlers, as we have seen, were Dutch. They were honest, thrifty, and 
whole-souled, and through almost the whole colonial period, kept on friendly terms with 
the Indians. Afterward, large numbers of Scotch, Germans, and English, all from the 
old country, as well as settlers from New England, came in, and added greatly to the 
enterprise and prosperity of the city and province. The spirit of independence was 
strong among the people. Able newspapers in the city kept their readers informed as to 
their rights, and as to the unjust and oppressive measures of the British government. 
The New York Assembly was the first of the colonial Assemblies to propose, in 1764, the 
appointment in all the colonies of "committees of correspondence" as to the oppressive 
measures of the mother country. And as early as 1 770, when the soldiers provoked the 
" Sons of Liberty," by cutting down their liberty-pole, a riot followed, in which several 
citizens were wounded and one was killed, so that the first blood shed in the 
beginning of the revolutionary struggles was in New York, more than a month before the 
noted " Boston massacre," which aroused such intense excitement, not only in New 
England, but throughout the entire country. 

After the Revolution the State grew rapidly in population and prosperity. Its area 
is 47,000 square miles. The climate is mild on the coast and in the southern portion, but 
colder in the northern parts. The soil, particularly in the central and western parts, 
which are limestone regions, is very fertile, producing the finest of wheat and maize and 
all kinds of fruit in abundance. It has noble rivers, and is traversed by railroads in 
every direction. Among its natural curiosities, or wonders, are the falls of Niagara, 
about which Brainard has written the following lines, which are unsurpassed, if not 
unequalled in sublimity, by anything ever written about them, and of which one of 
our great newspapers says, "They could have been written only by a first-class poet, 
and under the inspiration of a full view of the falls themselves, pouring forth their 
immensity of waters with their superhuman power." And yet, the author was never 
out of his native State, Connecticut. 

The thoughts are strange that crowd upon my brain 

While I look upward to thee. It would seem 

As if God poured thee from his hollow hand, 

And hung His bow upon thine awful front, 

And spake in that loud voice, which seemed to him 

Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake, 

The sound of many waters, and had bade 

Thy flood to chronicle the ages back 

And notch His centuries in the eternal rocks! 

"Deep calleth unto deep!" And what are we. 
Who hear the question of that voice sublime? 
O, what are all the notes that ever rang 
From War's vain trumpet by thy thundering side? 
Yea, what is all the riot man can make 
In his short life to thine unceasing roar? 
And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to Him 
Who drowned a world, and heaped the waters far 
Above its loftiest mountains? A light wave 
That breaks and whispers of its Afaker's might I 



THE KARLY COI.OXIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



69 




70 



OUR COUNTRY. 




And as " ' ._ _ J^'S^ 
lesser falls, there are '"^T 
those of the Genesee " __--__ 
and Mohawk rivers, those = — — 
of the Genesee havinCT "^ 

three cascades, of 96, 25, and 84 
feet, in two and a half miles; those 
of the Mohawk, at Trenton, a fall 
of 200 feet, in five cascades ; those 

of the Taghanae, 230 feet, in five cascades; those of the Cauterskill, 175 and 85 feet, in 
a gorge of the Catskill mountains. 

The State, too, has noble rivers, and many beautiful lakes within its borders, beside 
the larger lakes on or connected with its northern boundary. Soon after the close of the 



OPENING OF THE ERIE CANAL, 1825. 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



71 



war, in 18 16, steps were taken by the legislature toward building the Erie canal, of 
which it is commonly said that it was suggested by Gouverneur Morris, in 1800, and that 
it was carried on and completed through the energy and foresight of De Witt Clinton, 
although, at first, he was ridiculed for persisting in digging what was called " De Witt 
Clinton's Ditch," and what so many believed was a costly and useless thing. The canal 
was begun in July, 1817, and was finished in October, 1825, thus opening the way for 
the stream of commerce from the great West, which has made the city of New York the 
metropolis of the continent. Although the canal passed through a region of great 
fertility, much of the country at that time was a wilderness. It gave a tremendous 
impetus to the settlement and prosperity of the State. Villages and towns sprang up as 
if by magic along its banks, and some of them now are important cities. 

It is a fact that the first idea of such an improvement was suggested 
by Washington, who is known to have said that it was all important to the prosperity 
of the country to have water communication established between the great lakes 
and the waters of the seaboard ; and Hamilton, also, is known to have advanced 

the same idea, though to Morris 
and Clinton is to be given the credit 
of carrying out the grand idea in 
the Erie canal. 

In and about the many cities of 
the State are many monuments and 
structures well worthy of notice. 
One of these is the splendid 
Bartholdi monument, a gift from 
France to the United States. 
Including its base and pedestal, it 
is 306 feet high above low water 
mark, the pedestal alone costing 
$300,000. It stands on Bedloe's 
island, in the harbor of New York, 
and by its brilliant light, which 
shines forth from the statue at the 
top, it becomes the most splendid 
lighthouse in the world. 

Another remarkable, or even 
wonderful, structure is the great 
suspension bridge connecting the 
city of New York with Brooklyn. 
Its cost, including the land 
approaches, was about $9,000,000. 
Its length, including its approaches, 
is about a mile and a tenth ; its 
height above low water mark is 
135 feet, while the huge stone 
towers that sustain the wire cables 
supporting the bridge are 378 feet 
above hii/h water. 




TRENTON FALLS, NTiW VOKK. 



72 OUR COUNTRY. 

One of the first passenger railways in the United States was that between Albany 
and Schenectady, chartered in 1826, but not in operation till 1831. A cut of its first 
engine and cars will give an idea of the immense and wonderful improvement in the 
facilities for railroad travel known at the present day, when in the State there are some 




FIRST PASSENGER RAILWAY, 1S3I. 



hundred and fifty different railroads, in all over seven thousand miles in extent, and 
opening avenues for travel and traffic not only through the State, but to every part of 
the Union. 

The climate of New York is more varied than that of any other State, as in rich 
agricultural products it surpasses any other. The State has various and valuable 
minerals, and several important mineral and medicinal springs. It abounds in churches 
of various denominations; has an admirable system of public schools, and school 
property of over $30,000,000; has seventeen colleges or universities, several classical 
schools, important libraries, various and well sustained charitable institutions, and in all 
parts of the State private .schools and academies of a high order. The feeling and action 
as to all the steps that led to our national independence, as well as the part taken in the 
war of secession, were such as were becoming the foremost State of the Union. 

On the invitation of Massachusetts, the first congress for consultation was held in 

New York in 1765; it consisted of 
%^-^i-:,^^^m "^^^ twenty-eight delegates from nine of the 

thirteen colonies, so that in 
New York were passed some of 
the earliest resolutions denying 
the right of ta.xation 
without representa- 
tion, and demanding 
the repeal of the 
Stamp Act ; and in 
New York, through 
the steps taken by 
that congress, the 
union of the English 
colonies in America 
was organized. The 
population of the 
State in 1880 was 
5,082,891, and in 
1890, 5,981,934. 




RAPIDS OF THE ST. LAWRKN'CE RIVER. 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



71 




CAiSKlLl, MUUNJAIN SCENE. — THE IRON DUKE. 



74 



OUR COUNTRY. 



New Jersey. 

The territory of New Jersey was originally part of New Netherlands, and when that 
became the Province of New York, New Jersey was included with it. But in 1664, the 
Duke of York granted a part of the province to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, 
and the part so granted was made a separate province by the name of New Jersey. The 



J''.„.l^ 



i:0U]r^^\:'r 



y% 




ARREST OF CARTERKT. 



next year, Philip Carteret, as governor, came over with a body of emigrants, and a liberal 
charter was granted, giving equal rights and liberty to all religious denominations. 

The first settlement was made at Elizabeth, which was made the seat of 
government, in 1665, and soon there were settlements at other places; but as the 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



75 



population increased, troubles arose between the executive and the Assembly as to 
legislation, and also as to the payment of quit-rents, and in 1673 Berkeley sold out his 
share of the province to a company of English Friends or Quakers, and the province was 

divided, the Quaker 
purchase forming West 
Jersey, and the part 
held by Carteret mak- 
ing East Jersey. The 
proprietary rights of 
New Jersey and New 
York for a time were 
unsettled. Andros and 
Carteret quarrelling as 
to jurisdiction in East 
Jersey, the former at 
one time sent a file of 
soldiers to Elizabeth- 
port, who took Carteret 
out of bed and carried 
him as a prisoner to 
New York. But at last, 
in 1680, commissioners, 
who were appointed, 
decided against the 
Duke of York, in con- 
sequence of which he 
abandoned his claims 
and gave a deed to 
George Carteret, the 
grandson of James; and 
two years after this, 
William Penn and his 
nine associates, in 1682, 
bought up East Jersey, 
and the two Jerseys 
being united, Robert 
Barclay was made 
governor. Difficulties 
arising between the 
people and the propri- 
etors, the latter gave 
up their claims to the 
colony, and in 1702 the 
two Jerseys were united 
into one royal province 
by the name of New 
Jersey, and it was 




CHATEAUUAV LllAbM, MiAU i_HAlkALoAV \ ILLAGE, NEW YORK. 



jG OUR CUUNTkV. 

placed under the governor of New York, though still having its own Assembly, and in 
this condition it remained till 1738, when, on petition of the people, a separate governor 
was appointed by the king, after which it was rided by governors appointed from 
England down to the time of Independence. 

The soil of New Jersey was fertile. The province was free from trouble from the 
Indians, and being shut in by the great colonies of New York and Pennsylvania, was 
little affected by the French war. The Quakers and Scotch, who, with many fi'om New 
England, formed the main elements of the population were chiefly engaged in farming. 
They were frugal, industrious, moral, and always intelligent and decided in their love of 
liberty, and the province grew rapidly and was greatly prospered. As in all the other 
colonies, the people were opposed to taxation by England, and so excited against the 
Stamp Act that the stamp collector ne\cr ventured to attempt its enforcement. New 
Jersey sent delegates to the congress invited by Massachusetts, and so acted with the 
other colonies in that assembly. Some of the important battles of the Revolution were 
fought in New Jersey — at Trenton, Princeton, and Monmouth, — and her position in the 
center of the confederacy made her soil the principal theatre of the war. 

After the time of Independence the State grew rapidly in population and prosperity. 
Its area of 8,320 square miles is of varied soil, the northern part being hilly and 
mountainous, the central part a rolling country, and the eastern portion a sandy plain, 
declining to the sea, and affording some of the favorite summer resorts of the country. 
The State abounds in factories of various kinds, and its nearness to New York makes it a 
place of residence for multitudes whose business is in that city. Railroads traverse every 
part of the State. Some $3,000,000 are annually expended for its common schools, the 
buildings for which are valued at over $7,000,000. For higher education the State has 
five colleges, five collegiate schools for women, three scientific and agricultural schools, 
beside four theological seminaries, and large numbers of private schools and seminaries 
of a high order. At the Revolution tlie population of the State was variously estimated 
at 100,000 to 150,000; in 1880 it was 1,131,116, and in 1890, 1,441,017. 



Peknsvlv.wia. 

The region of Pennsylvania was first visited by Henry Hudson, in 1609, and then, 
in 1610, by Lord De la War, after whom the river and bay of Delaware are named. The 
Dutch, in 1623. took possession of the whole territory between the Delaware and 
Hudson rivers, and held it till 1664, when New Netherlands was conquered by the 
English; it was recovered by the Dutch in 1672, and again reverted to the British rule in 
1674. The first European settlement was near what is now Gloucester, New Jersey, and 
the Swedes, who followed, settled on the west bank of the Delaware, in 1638. But in 
1 68 1 a large part of all this territory was granted by charter to William Penn, who 
founded the colony which has grown to be the great .State of Pennsylvania. 

In the mother country, Penn was the most distinguished of all the men who founded 
States in America. Though he was the son and heir of a leading, wealthy and worldly 
admiral of the British navy, yet he became a member, and then the zealous leader of the 
despised and persecuted sect of the Friends or Quakers, and as he grew up, gradually 
grew also in power and influence till he became the favorite and adviser of King James, 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



77 



then on the throne of England. "In his character," says another, "was a curious 
minghng of dissimilar quahties. He was, at the same time, a saint and a courtier, a 
rehgious fanatic and a shrewd man of affairs and of the world ; but in American history 
he appears as the wise founder of a State, the prudent and just magistrate, and the 
Hberal-minded law-giver and ruler." 

His attention was first drawn to the work of colonization by the misfortunes of the 
settlements in New Jersey, in which the Quakers had become interested, and in which 
he himself took part, that he might be of help and service to them. And as he had from 
his father a large claim against the government, which was not likely to be otherwise 
paid, in 1681 he took in payment the large unoccupied region between New Jersey and 




PENN S HOUSE, SECOND STREET, BELOW CHESTNUT, rHn,ADELPHIA. 



Maryland, containing some forty-three thousand square miles of territory, to which was 
given the name of " Pennsylvania." He published an address, e.xplaining his scheme, 
and saying that the government of his new colony was to be just and righteous, and in 
accordance with Quaker principles, and guaranteeing perfect liberty of conscience and 
the right of trial by jury, not only to white men, but to Indians, and offering land, even 
to servants, at very low rates, subject only to small quit-rents to be paid to himself 
as proprietor. 

With these prospects and promises in view, not only Quakers from England, but 
emigrants from various parts of Europe, especially from Germany, came over, three 
shiploads arriving the first year, and settling on the banks of the Delaware. The next 



78 



OUR COUNTRY. 



year, 1862, Penn himself, with a company of a hundred persons, landed at Newcastle, 
having obtained from the Duke of York a grant of what is now the State of Delaware, 
a region then called "The Territories." The key of the fort at Newcastle was formally 
given him, and with this he locked himself into the fort, and then let himself out, as a 




VIEW ON THE srsilUEHANNA RIVER, PENNSYLVANIA. 

siL,ni that the government was his ; and to show 
that the land also was his, with its forests 
and rivers, a piece of turf, the branch of a 
tree, and a cup of water from the river were 
also given to him. He was cordially received by the settlers who were already in 
Pennsylvania and Delaware, and on November 30 made his famous treaty with the 
Indians under the large elm tree near what is now Kensington, winning their confidence 
and paying them for their lands, so that as long as the Quaker control of the colony 
continued, which was about seventy years, friendship and peace continued between the 
settlers and the natives. 

About the end of the year, Penn founded Philadelphia as the capital of his colony, 
and after reigning two years, wisely arranging the government, and giving the people a 
most liberal charter, he went back to England in 1684. Everything was now prosperous 
in the colony. In a single year some seven thousand settlers arrived, and before the end 
of the century the colonists numbered more than twenty thousand, and Philadelphia had 
grown to be the largest town in all the colonies. 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



79 




80 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Penn remained in England about fifteen years, during which time dissensions arose in 
the colony. In 1691, Delaware withdrew from Pennsylvania, and in 1703 was made a 
separate province. Quarrels arose among those left in authority, and the people 




PENNSYLVANIA FOREST SCENERY. 



neglected or refused payment of the quit-rents due on their properties. To settle the 
various troubles, Penn, in 1699, came back to the colony, intending to remain there, but 
in 1 701, he again went back to England, where he died in 171 8, leaving the colony to his 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 8 1 

sons as proprietors, and by them it was governed, through deputy governors, down to 
the time of the Revolution, when it was bought by the commonwealth for $580,000. 
The boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland was long a matter of dispute and 
trouble, but was finally settled, in 1767, by the famous Mason and Dixon line. A 
thriving trade was carried on with England, the West Indies, and the southern provinces, 
employing at the time of the Revolution some five hundred vessels and over seven 
thousand seamen. Newspapers were early established in the colony, one of them 
by Franklin. Taxation by England, and the Stamp Act, were universally and strongly 
opposed; and when the Stamp Act Congress met in New York, in 1765, Pennsylvania 
was represented by her delegates, and her history becomes part of that of the 
United States. 

Since the Revolution, Pennsylvania has been steadily growing in population and 
prosperity. Its area is about 43,000 square miles. Its climate and soil are various. In 
the mountainous parts are the vast coal fields and iron deposits that have enriched 
the State, and adjacent to the coal measures other minerals are found, and in the 
bituminous districts the great deposits of petroleum. While one of the best agricultural 
States, Pennsylvania is also largely engaged in mining and manufacturing, some of the 
largest carpet manufactories in the world being in Philadelphia. The State has over six 
thousand miles of railroads, connecting it with every part of the Union; some thirty 
colleges, including its great university, fifteen theological seminaries, several normal 
schools, and also schools of medicine ; a thorough system of common schools, supported 
by an annual expenditure of over six million dollars, numerous private schools and 
seminaries of a high order, and a large number of hospitals, charitable institutions, and 
public libraries. The population of the State in 1880 was 4,282,871, and in 1890, 
5,248,574- 

Delaware. 

What is now Delaware, was so called from Lord De La War, an early governor of 
Virginia, who, in 1610 sailed up and landed on the shores of the Bay, though Henry 
Hudson had been there a year before. In 1630, the Dutch planted a small colony near 
Cape Henlopen, but three years later the Indians had driven them out, and the 
settlement disappeared. In 1637 a colony of Swedes and Finlanders bought land and 
built a fort on Christiana creek, naming the region New Sweden ; and a little later they 
erected another fort and a trading-house a few miles below Philadelphia. The Dutch of 
New Netherlands, however, claimed the territory as a part of their own, but when New 
York came under English government, in 1664, the Delaware settlements were claimed 
by the Duke of York, as they also were by Lord Baltimore for Maryland. But William 
Penn, in 1682, purchased the Duke's right and made a compromise with Lord Baltimore, 
and so added the Delaware settlements to Pennsylvania ; and for twenty years they were 
governed as a part of that State, under the name of "the territories." In 1703, Delaware 
established a separate legislature, and became a distinct province, though it still remained 
under the governor of Pennsylvania up to the time of the Revolution when the State 
became independent. 

Next to Rhode Island, Delaware is the smallest of the United States, having only 
2,120 square miles. Te.xas alone would make 130 Delawares. There are no mountains 
6 



82 



OUR COUNTRY. 




in the State, and, 
except in the northern 
parts, the surface is 
generally level and 
sandy. The soil is for 
f the most part fertile, 
and the climate equable 
and healthful. The 
shores are the resort of 
vast numbers of wild 
geese and ducks. The 
peach and apple crops 
and the production of 
•i-3| small fruits are large 
industries of the State, 
though other various 
agricultural productions 
are in fair proportion. The people are mostly farmers, but there 
are numerous and profitable manufactories m the State, 
especially in the larger towns. Wilmington is largely engaged 
,™ in car and shipbuilding, and has extensive machine shops of 
gf various kinds. The State has a normal university, a college at 
'^Newark, a female college at Wilmington, and numerous free and 
private schools, and charitable institutions. The oldest church 
in Delaware was that founded by the Swedish Lutherans, the 
ministers of which were sent from Sweden until 1786, when 
the custom of sendig them was no longer continued, as their 
speech was not generally understood by the mass of the people. 
Delaware, from her position, was from the f^rst, almost entirely 
exempt from Indian forays and wars. Her men were active m 



h.Nt ON THE DELAW/.RE UAY. 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 83 

service during the French wars ; and in the Revolution lier soldiers were foremost in 
good service, as some of the best and bravest of Washington's troops. The population 
of the State in 1880 was 146,608, and in 1890, 167,871. 



Maryland. 

As persecution led to the settlement of New England by the Pilgrims and Puritans, 
and to the settlement of Pennsylvania by the Quakers, so it led to the colonization of 
Maryland by the Roman Catholics. George Calvert, who afterward became Lord 
Baltimore, had, in 1627, commenced a colony in New Foundland, but the climate there 
was so cold and severe that he went, in 1629, to Virginia, but as the Catholics were not 
allowed there, he returned to England, and obtained from Charles I. a grant of a part of 
Virginia lying north of the Potomac, for which he was to pay the king two Indian 
arrows a year, and one-fifth of all the gold and silver he might find. 

The province was named Maryland, in honor of the queen, and by its charter was 
freed forever from English ta.xation, and was guaranteed entire freedom in civil and 
religious matters. But before the patent was finally adjusted and signed, Sir George 
Calvert died, and the territory was granted to his son, the second Lord Baltimore. The 
first settlers, consisting of twenty gentlemen and three hundred laboring men, were sent 
out under Leonard Calvert, Lord Baltimore's brother, in 1633, and reached Maryland in 
the following year. They came in two vessels, the Ark and the Dove, bringing Roman 
Catholic priests with them, and finally settled on St. Mary's river, not far from the 
Potomac. Here they bought land from the Indians, and the foundations of the colony 
were peacefully and happily laid, and in six months it had advanced more than Virginia 
had done in as many years, having a system of representative government, and all the 
liberties which were enjoyed in England itself. 

The colony was for a time greatly prospered. But after a while the Puritans coming 
in, in numbers, so as to have a majority in the government, divided the opinions of the 
people, and led to acts of the legislature giving, in 1649, full toleration as to religious 
opinion. There were, for a time, troubles with the Indians, who were jealous of the 
growth and prosperity of the colony. And there were also difificulties with Clayborne, 
one of the Virginia council, who, having a royal trading license, would not submit to 
Lord Baltimore's rule, and kept the colony in trouble for ten years. In one of the 
conflicts arising from these difficulties, a vessel sent out by Clayborne was attacked by 
armed pinnaces from Maryland, and a sharp fight took place, resulting in death on both 
sides, and in the vessel of Clayborne being captured and taken to St. Marys. At another 
time, the Golden Lion, an armed merchant vessel, fired upon the Maryland boats, which 
were obliged to retreat to the more shallow parts of the river for safety, (see pages 84, 85). 

The subject of religious freedom and toleration also led to difficulty, for after a time 
a class of Protestants came in, who, gaining control, passed a law disfranchising the 
Roman Catholics, a measure which led to civil conflicts, in which the Catholics were 
defeated. In 1658, the proprietary government was restored, and peace and the old 
liberties were again enjoyed till in 1689, when the Catholics were for a time opposed and 
oppressed, as were the Quakers, also, for a while, for refusing to do military duty. In 
1691, King William made Maryland a royal province, and it so continued till 1716, when, 



84 



OUR COUNTRY. 




u n d c r the fifth 
Lord Baltimore, 
the proprietary- 



AV government was renewed, and 



FIGHT WITH THE MARYLAND PINNACE. 



continued till the Revolution. 
In the meantime, the colony 
was rapidly growing, settlers 
coming in from Europe and 
from the other colonies. 
Tobacco was largely culti- 
vated chiefly by slave labor; trade was extended at home and abroad, and Baltimore 
became an important commercial city. The people were intelligent, and like those of all 
the colonies, decided in their love of freedom and self-government. They took an active 
part in the French wars, and were among the first to resist the aggressions of the British 
government which led to the Revolution; and when organized as a State in 1776, they 
took a most cf^cient and honorable part in the Revolutionary war. In 1783, Congress 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



85 



met at the capital, Annapolis, and there it was that Washington resigned his commission 

as commander-in-chief of the forces of the Union. The State has an area of 11,124 

square miles. The country rises gradually from the coast to the highest points of the 

Alleghany mountains, with great varieties of formation, including deposits of coal, iron, 

copper, marl, etc. The climate is 

temperate, and the soil in most 

parts fertile. Peaches and market 

garden vegetables and fruits grow 

in great perfection, and other 

agricultural products of various 

kinds gi\-e profitable employment 




to the people. The State abounds in 
manufacturing establishments, and the 
annual value of canned oysters, vege- 
tables, fish, and fruits is estimated at over 
10,000,000. The foreign commerce is 
confined almost entirely to Baltimore. 
The expenditures for public schools are 
some $2,000,000 a year. In the State 
there are nine colleges, including the 
Johns Hopkins University, endowed by 
Mr. Hopkins with $3,500,000; the United States naval academy at Annapolis, a large 
number of schools and academies of a high order, and institutions for the blind, the deaf 
and dumb, the insane, for juvenile delinquents, &c. The population of the State at 
the Revolution was about 220,000; in 1880, 934,243, and in 1890, 1,040,431. 



THE 'GOLDEN LION FIRING ON THE MARYLAND BOATS. 



86 



OUR COUNTRY. 



.^^ 




THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



87 



North Carolina. 



The region of Carolina was first explored by a party sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh, 
in 1584, in which year a settlement was made on Roanoke island. But trouble with the 
Indians caused the colonists to return to England and no further attempt was made to 
colonize the region for nearly eighty years. At that time the first permanent settlement 
was made by a considerable number of emigrants from Virginia, who left that colony to 
escape the oppressions of the Episcopal, which was there the established church. 
They settled, in 1653, in the region north of Albemarle sound, where they found a rich 
soil and fine climate, and where they were free and independent both in civil and 
religious matters. 




A VISTA IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



W// ' 



But in 1663, the king granted to Lord Clarendon and his associates the region 
extending from Virginia to Florida, giving them almost absolute authority, and the 
country then received the name of Carolina. A liberal government was given to the 
little colony on the sound, which was called Albemarle colony, and in 1665 a company 
from Barbadoes settled near the mouth of Cape Fear river, taking the name of the 
Clarendon colony, both these settlements being within what is now North Carolina. In 
1670, an English company, under William Sayle, settled on the Ashley river, and took 



88 OUR COUNTRY. 

the name of the Carteret colony. This was the first settlement in what is now South 
Carolina, and was at old Charleston. 

The proprietors of Carolina engaged the celebrated Joliii Locke to draw up a plan of 
government for the colony, a plan which, though called the " Grand Model," proved to 
be an utter failure; and in 1677, the people of the northern settlements took the 
government into their own hands, so that things for a time went on well ; but a new 
governor being sent out, who for six years plundered and oppressed the people, they 
banished him, and chose an Assembly from among themselves. After this, they had 
better governors sent out ; and North Carolina had some excellent colonists, a company 
of French Protestants settling, in 1707, on the river Trent; and, in 1710, some German 
Lutherans, who fled from persecution in their own land, coming as colonists. In 171 1, 
the Indians attacked the colony and murdered a hundred and thirty of the settlers, but 
they were soon conquered, eight hundred of them being captured, and the rest driven 
northward into New York. 

In 1729, the king of England bought the whole province, and divided the northern 
settlement from the southern, calling the former North Carolina, and the latter South 
Carolina. Each remained a royal province, with a government and legislation of its own, 
but with royal governors, down to the time of the Revolution. In the beginning of tlie 
eighteenth century great numbers of emigrants came into North Carolina from Scotland, 
Germany, France and the North of Ireland, and about the middle of the same century 
many more came from Pennsylvania and the northern colonies. The interior of the 
country was explored and settled, and proved to be far more fertile than the coast. The 
people were mostly engaged in agriculture, and were trained by their mode of life to be 
both self-reliant and independent. 

In August, 1776, the colony ratified the Declaration of Independence, and in the 
following December held a convention and framed a constitution for the State, which 
remained the organic law till 1835. After the Revolution, the State enjoyed much 
prosperity, but its history is marked by no specially eventful period till the breaking out 
of the rebellion, followed, as it was, by the four years of war, in which the State suffered 
many disasters and was the field of important conflicts, as will be mentioned in the 
accounts of the War of Secession. 

The soil, as well as the climate is varied in different parts of the State. The low 
lands are hot and humid, but in the interior and higher grounds the air is singularly dry, 
pure, and bracing. The mineral products embrace not only coal and iron of superior 
qualities, but also the precious metals. Gold has been found in twenty-three counties, 
and silver, copper, lead, zinc, and other metals are known to e.xist, though not extensively 
mined. Other forms of mineral wealth in the State are abundant and valuable. The 
agricultural products are rice, cotton, tobacco, wheat and Indian corn, etc. There are 
large forests of the long-leaved pine, supplying immense quantities of resin, turpentine, 
tar, and pitch. The fisheries of the State are also important. The State has ten 
colleges, numerous academies and seminaries of respectable rank, a system of common 
schools, and numerous newspapers and periodicals. The population in 1776 was about 
260,000; in 1880, 1,399,750, and in 1890, 1,617,340. 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



89 



South Carolina. 

South Carolina, as we have seen, was not set off by itself till 1729, its territory up to 
that time being a part of the Carolina province, though a settlement had been made 
within its borders, at old Charleston, in 1670. The region soon attracted a large number 
of very desirable settlers, among whom were the Dutch from New York, a large company 
of Huguenots from France, and many people from England and Scotland, both cavaliers 
and Puritans. In 1671, African slaves were first brought from Barbadoes, and so negro 




VIEW OF A COTTON CUnXE. 



slavery began with the plantations on the Ashley river. South Carolina being the only 
one of the thirteen colonies that was, from its beginning, a planting State with slave 
labor. In 1680, the capital was removed from old Charleston to where it now stands. 

In 1694, the cultivation of rice began, the seed being brought from Madagascar. 
Cotton had been introduced as early as 1536, though it was not largely exported till 
1770; but cotton, rice, and indigo early became the great staples of the State. In 1890, the 
export of cotton from South Carolina was over seven million bales, averaging in weight 
four hundred and forty pounds each. This immense increase of the cotton production 



90 OUR COUNTRY. 

was owing to the invention, by Wliitney, of the " cotton gin," by the use of which the 
seed of the cotton was rapidly separated from the fibre, when before the work had been 
slowly done by hand. The cut shows how the huge bales of cotton are in some places 
loaded upon the steamers that bear them on their way to the manufactories or to 
foreign lands. 

The government of the colony was in the hands of a governor sent out by the 
proprietors from England, though the people elected their own legislature. But when, 
in 1686, the royal governor oppressed the people, he was deposed by them and banished. 
The colony had difficulties with the Spanish possessions on the south, and also with the 
Indians, who were allies of the Spaniards. In 1706, the united fleet of the Spanish and 
French vessels attacked Charleston, but were repulsed with severe loss; and in 171 5, 
there was war with the Indian tribes, who, swooping down on the frontier settlements, 
murdered large numbers of the inhabitants, but were driven back with great loss. These 
wars were a great expense to the people, and the proprietors in England not only refused 
to pay any part of the loss, but taxed the colonists severely, so that, in 17 19, they threw 
off all allegiance to the proprietors and elected their own governor. For years there 
were quarrels between the people and their governors, the former insisting on their 
rights, as to which they were watchful and decided. In 1729, the king bought out the 
proprietors, and South Carolina was mabe a royal province, and so continued to the end 
of colonial times, being under royal governors, but electing their own Assemblies. 

The planters of South Carolina were a wealthy and cultured class, and were early 
noted not only for affluence, but for their refined hospitality. The Huguenots, driven 
from France by persecution, added greatly to the population of the colony, as well as to 
its intelligence and moral worth. They were of high social position, and their 
descendants have always been conspicuous in the history of the State. Many of the 
young men of the colony were sent to England for education. Though the general 
spirit of the people was one of loyalty to the crown, they were always jealous of their 
liberties, and restless under the English laws of trade and restrictions on the industries of 
the colony; and taxation by England and the Stamp Act roused them to opposition and 
prepared them for the struggle with the mother country. Their delegates were sent to 
the Stamp Act Congress, which the prompt and decided measures of their colonial 
Assembly had aided to bring about, and the people of the State were active in forming 
the union of the States, of which South Carolina then became a part. 

After the Revolution the State increased rapidly in population and wealth, and its 
political leaders gave it prominence and influence. The most important event in its 
history for seventy years was brought about by John C. Calhoun, who, with other 
leading men of the State, attempted to nullify certain acts of Congress which imposed a 
tariff on imported goods, which it was claimed bore unjustly against the interests of the 
State. For a time, this defiance of national authority threatened future trouble, but the 
prompt and decided action of President Jackson restored order. The desire to maintain 
State rights, however, was still held, and had much to do in bringing on the War 
of Secession. 

South Carolina has little waste land ; its soils are various, and adapted to every kind 

- of agricultural products, as well as fruits and vegetables. Manufacturing establishments 

are numerous, and in the last few years have greatly multiplied. Provision is made by 

the State constitution for the compulsory attendance of all between six and sixteen years 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 



91 




SCENE IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



92 



OUR COUNTRY. 



of age at schools, either public or private. The State has eight colleges, and numerous 
academies, seminaries, normal schools, &c., and, like most of the States, has numerous 
libraries in its difTerent towns and cities. The population of the State in 1776 was 
lSo,000; in 1880, 995,577, and in 1890, 1,147,161. 



Georgia. 



Georgia was the last of the colonies founded before the Declaration of 
Independence, and it was the only one that owed its existence to charity and the spirit of 
benevolence. Among all those who led the English race to the colonization of America, 
there were many men of striking character and most marked ability, but there was not 




A PLANTER S HOUSE IN GEORGIA 



one who displayed greater devotion to duty, or greater benevolence of spirit, than James 
Oglethorpe, who began the settlement of Georgia that it might be an asylum and refuge 
for the poor and oppressed. For himself and his associates he obtained from George II. 
a grant of the territory between the Savannah and the Altamaha ri\'ers, to which, in 
honor of the king, he gave the name of Georgia. As a member of parliament his 
attention had been drawn to the condition of the prisons of debtors, where he found the 
greatest abuses and frightful suffering, a remedy for which he hoped to offer in his 
proposed colony. Leading a company of a hundred and twenty persons, he ascended 



THE EARLY COLONIES AND ORIGINAL STATES. 93 

the Savannah river in February, 1733, and began a settlement which he called Savannah, 
making friendship with the Indians, allotting land to individuals, and building a fort for 
defence. 

Money was voted for his plans by parliament, and in the next two or three years 
large additions were made to the colony. Among the colonists were two young men 
who afterwards became quite noted in the world, Charles and John Wesley, the former 
being Oglethorpe's secretary, and the latter a missionary to the Indians. Their stay, 
however, was very short, Charles being dismissed for slandering Oglethorpe and for 
factious meddling in colonial affairs, and John embroiling the settlement by his zealous 
intolerance, and by a love affair in which he was disappointed, and leaving the colony 
under an indictment for libel. They were followed by George Whitefield, an equally 
distinguished leader in the great religious movement of the century, who did much as a 
missionary and a preacher, but came and went without leaving from this, his first visit, 
any enduring impressions or results. 

Annoying as the Wesleys had been, there were two] regulations which were sources 
of far greater trouble, one excluding rum from the colony, and the other prohibiting 
slavery. Both of these restrictions roused extended and great opposition, and neither 
could be enforced ; for not only did South Carolina employ slaves, but it was thought 
that Georgia could not be successfully cultivated but by negro labor, and rum came in 
as freely as ever from the adjoining colony, so that law-breaking was added to 
drunkenness. Slaves, too, were smuggled in, and the prohibition of slavery became a 
grievance, great and growing as time went on. By these causes the growth of the 
colony was retarded, as it was also by the nearness and enmity of the Spaniards in 
Florida. Fearing danger from them, Oglethorpe went to England, and brought back 
with him, in addition to some regular troops, six hundred men, who, with their ofificers, 
were allowed to bring their families, as an inducement to settle in the province. In 
1740, he invaded Florida, but without success; and two years later, the Spaniards, with 
thirty-six vessels and three thousand men, invaded Georgia, but were finally driven from 
the coast. 

In 1743, Oglethorpe having returned to England, the government was left to a 
president and council. But trade languishing, in 1752, the charter was surrendered to 
the king, and Georgia became a royal province. The prohibitions spoken of were then 
removed, and Georgia rapidly advanced in population and wealth, and in all her 
institutions became like the other southern slaveholding colonies. She had no 
manufactures, but like other communities of the south, was dependent for them on the 
mother country and the more northern colonies. The English taxation policy and the 
Stamp Act roused deep and bitter opposition throughout the colony, though, through 
the governor's influence, delegates were not sent to the Stamp Act Congress. But 
Georgia took a decided part with the united colonies in the steps that led to and carried 
out the Revolution. 

The area of Georgia is 58,000 square miles, about one-quarter of which is under 
cultivation, the diversity of soil and climate giving corresponding variety of production. 
The low grounds and islands on the coast are fertile in cotton of a superior quality, and 
rice, corn, and other cereals are easily cultivated, while valuable timber lands abound. 
Gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, marble, and some precious stones are found, and also coal, 
antimony, gypsum, slates, etc. Every variety of tree flourishes. Large tracts of land 



94 



OUR COUNTRY. 



are valuable for pasturage. The State has eight universities or colleges, three collegiate 
institutions for agricultural instruction, several schools of law, medicine, and theology, 
and a system of common schools. Since the close of the War of Secession, the State has 
been greatly prospered, and is steadily growing in population and wealth. Its population 
in 1776 was about 50,000, of whom about one-half were slaves; in 1880, it was 1,542,180, 
and in 1890, 1,834,356. 




SCENE IN A GEORGIA MEADOW. 







o 



PERIOD 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE early colonies, the rise and progress of which have been traced, were not only 
governed and controlled by the English race, but, in every case, with the exception 
of New York and Delaware, that race laid the foundations of the future States. 
All had numerous traits in common, but in many things there were differences so marked 
as to be worthy of notice. Adventure brought men to Virginia; politics and religion, to 
New England; conscience and business, to Pennsylvania and New Jersey; philanthropy, 
to Georgia; trade and commerce, to New York; while the settlement of the other 
colonies was from mixed motives and aims. In many respects they may be spoken of 
as the New England, the Middle and the Southern Colonies. 



Thk New England Colonies. 

The climate of the New England Colonies was one of extremes, with fine and warm 
summers, delightful autumns, severely cold winters, and harsh and inclement springs. 
The soil was greatly varied, the valleys being richly fertile, and the uplands more or less 
broken by rocky formations, demanding for culture incessant toil. There were vast 
forests, noble rivers, and safe and ample harbors, but nature gave so little that a bare 
subsistence and the limited comforts of life could be obtained only by constant labor on 
the land and daring adventure on the stormy and uncertain seas of the coast. 

In this region the Pilgrims and Puritans made their homes, laid the foundations of 
powerful States, and gradually covered the land with prosperous villages and the coasts 
with thriving towns. The people who did this were almost entirely of the English race, 
some twenty thousand coming to New England between 1629 and 1639; and from these 
and a comparatively few Normans, Huguenots, and Scotch-Irish sprang the people of 
New England, of whom it was said that " God sifted a whole nation in order that he 
might send the choicest grain into the wilderness," or, as expressed by another, " God 
sifted three kingdoms that he might sow this land with the finest wheat." 

At the time of the Revolution, the people of New England were, probably, the 
purest part of the Anglo-Saxon race, for, for one hundred and fifty years they had lived 

95 



96 



OUR COUNTRY. 



in the New World, receiving no infusion of fresh blood from any race but their own. 
Race, language, religious belief, manners, customs and habits of mind and thought were 
very much the same in all the New England settlements. And this community of so 
many traits was strengthened by Community of class, for the settlers of New England 
were from the country gentlemen and substantial farmers and yeomanry of the 
Mother-land, the men of that famous " country party " in England, which sent Hampden 
and Pym and Cromwell to the House of Commons, and afterward fought the battles of 
the long Parliament and founded the Commonwealth. Many of them were men of 
wealth and highly educated in England, and all of them, with few exceptions, were men 
of property and influence in the country which they left for the New World. Not only 
their strength of character and their high intelligence, but their strong pride of race and 
origin, was to them, as in Virginia, one of the characteristics of a superior and dominant 
people, and one of the secrets of their practical wisdom and wonderful success. 

At the outbreak 
of the Revolution, 
the population of 
New England was 
some 700,000, of 
whom about 15,000 
were slaves. The 
people were occu- 
pied, chiefly, in 
agriculture and 
; trade, their principal 
sources of profit 
being the whale and 
cod fisheries and 
their exports and 
coasting trade. 
Mechanical work 
gradually increased, 
and domestic manu- 
factures soon sprang 
up. Paper, beaver hats, linens, and coarse woolens were made ; the spinning-wheel 
and loom were in every family, and homespun and coarse linen, and on the 
frontier dressed deer-skins were worn. The governments of the different colonies, 
as we have seen, differed among themselves, but the main features of all were 
the extent of popular power, the practical independence of the Mother country 
and the common sense simplicity of the government and administration. Taxes were 
low; each person had an allotted share in the land; the village communities had charge 
of all local interests; every public measure was discussed and settled in the town meeting; 
the judicial system was simple, and admirably administered by men of high character 
and social and political prominence, in whom the absence of thorough legal training was 
supplied by a quick and strong common sense; law and medicine, as professions, were 
comparatively unknown ; the army and navy had no existence, but the hardy fishermen 
had an intelligence and courage peculiarly their own, and from their class were manned 




ON I HE NEW ENGEANU CIJAST. 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 



97 



the privateers which afterward inflicted such terrible injuries on the commerce of 
England, and so largely contributed to our success in the War of 1812. The English 
Puritan was essentially a brave and fighting man, and many of the early leaders had 
been trained to the art of war, both in Europe, and later under Cromwell, who said, "He 
that prays best will fight the best." Dangers from the Indians kept the warlike habit 
and feeling in full exercise, and the war with the Pequots, for effectiveness and success, 
has rarely been equalled in the history of any land. All adults were enrolled in the 
militia, and when the revolutionary troubles began the " lighting of the watch-fire on 
Beacon Hill would bring thousands of armed men to Boston in twenty-four hours," and 
Massachusetts alone furnished more men in the war for independence than all the 
colonies south of Delaware. Public spirit was a part of the New Englander's life, and 
"A coward and a Puritan never went together." 

The clergy of" New England were men of birth, education and culture. Many of 
them had filled leading pulpits in England, and all were men of the sternest courage and 
deepest convictions, having clear views of truth and broad ideas of what government and 
society should be. In every way they were leaders of the people, setting their mark 
indelibly upon the institutions of New England. In accordance with their views the 
laws were framed and the public policy shaped. For them the college was founded, and 
they of all others had the highest education. Though their congregations were made up 
of thinking and decided men, their influence from the pulpit, and in social life, wasfalmost 
unbounded. They were profound scholars and their sermons were monuments of learning, 
and, personally, they were venerated and loved. Religion was the ruling force among 
the people: " He that made religion twelve and the world thirteen, had not the spirit of 
a true New England man." 

Their church buildings, or "meeting-houses," as they were called, were like rude 
barns constructed of logs. Their churches were, each, self-sustaining and independent, 
the sovereign 
power resting with 
the congrega- 
tion. Everybody 
attended the meet- 
ing on the Sab- 
bath, all 

together at the 
beat of a drum 
or the sound of a 
horn. As a pre- 
caution against 
Indian attacks the 
men went armed 
to church, and 
sentinels kept watch at the door. 
Their worship was simple and purely 
spiritual. As has been said, they 
acknowledged no bishop, invoked no 
saints, raised no altar, bowed down to 
7 




98 



OUR COUNTRY. 




ARMED CHURCH-GOERS IN THE EARLY COLONIES. 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 99 

no crucifix, paid no tithes, and saw in the priest only a good man instructing and doing 
good to the people, and the lessons he inculcated in the pulpit they earnestly cherished 
in their thoughts and carried out in their daily life in the week. Their church was only 
a place for meeting; their graves were in unconsecrated earth; they married without a 
minister, and buried their dead without a prayer or remark. Their prayers were long and 
their sermons longer, often occupying two hours in delivery, and listened to with a 
patience and attention which made them an important means of intellectual training as 
well as of instruction in truth and duty. Their hymns, which were rude, both in 
language and versification, were given out line by line, and sung by the whole 
congregation, who, at the outside, did not know more than four or five tunes; and 
though singing by note was after a time introduced in the larger towns, in the country 
congregations it was almost unknown until about the time of the Revolution. " If you 
sing by note," said one of their leaders, " you will soon pray by rote, and then, as the next 
step, you'll become Roman Catholics." And what seems so strange to us, the bible was 
not allowed to be read from their pulpits on the Sabbath, for in the re-action from 
popery and high churchism, and in the fear lest the preachers might give their personal 
views of the interpretation of the Holy Word, and so trench on the right and duty of 
private interpretation, while the people were earnestly exhorted to " Search the 
Scriptures" at home, they were not read, as in modern times, as a part of the public 
worship of God till late in the seventeenth, or even the beginning of the eighteenth 
century. 

Strict, and even severe, as the early Pilgrims and Puritans were in their religious 
opinions, and guided as they largely were by the teachings of the Old Testament, they 
were led to some views that seem to us strange and superstitious, though many such 
views were rather of the age than of any one country or people. They believed for a 
time in witchcraft ; but where Scotland sacrificed scores to this delusion, there were but 
three victims in New England, and one of these was proved to be a murderess. They 
made religion a test of citizenship, and legislated as to everything connected, not only 
with the morals, but with the every-day life of the people, — with what they should eat, 
and drink, and wear. Long hair was abhorred as "worn by the sons of Belial," and rings 
were denounced as abominations. A minister's wife who was thought to dress too finely 
was reproved for " carnal-mindedness." A shoemaker was punished for making inferior 
shoes. Crime was comparatively rare, and though their penal codes seem, to us to be 
severe, yet, for the age, and as compared with those of England, they were mild and 
humane. A crowd of offenses was banished from the catalogue of capital punishments, 
and the death penalty was rarely inflicted except for murder and arson. Fines were the 
mildest forms of penalty, and severe punishments, such as whipping, branding, 
cropping, the pillory and the stocks did not disappear till about the time of the 
Revolution. The burned scar was the worst mark, but letters of brilliant color sewed on 
the dress and worn for a length of time, indicating the kind of offence, were a device 
which at the same time might brand and punish. Scolds were gagged and set out, as 
an example and warning, at their own doors. Paupers were sold for support to the 
highest bidder, but they were kindly cared for. Divorce seems to have been unknown. 
Cruelty to animals was made a civil offence. One might be there for years and not see a 
drunkard, meet a beggar, or hear an oath. Good health was almost universal, and the 
average length of life, as compared with Europe, was greatly increased, some said, 
nearly doubled. 



lOO OUR COUNTRY. 

Strong social distinction existed, and an aristocracy of birth, ancestry, ability, 
education, and, to some extent, wealth, gave great prominence and influence to the 
leaders of the community. Even in the churches, people were seated according to their 
social standing. Though great estates were few, houses, large and cosily for the times, 
were numerous. One is spoken of as having fifty-two rooms, endless paneling, carved 
mantelpieces, and expensive architectral ornaments from the old country. But the 
homes of the body of the people were of plain materials and simple construction ; first 
the log hut, then the frame house in various forms, and now and then a dwelling of brick 
or stone. The houses were so cold that ink and wine often froze in the rooms wlere a 
fire was blazing on the hearth. The windows in these houses were generally of paper, 
which was oiled that the light might come through. Carpets were almost unknown, and 
the floors were often sanded. The furniture was plain. The sun-dial served instead of 
clocks, which were few and expensive. Pewter and wood took the place of china, and 
for a time the wooden '■ trencher" was on most tables. Wheat was abundant; fruit 
plentiful; tea was extensively used, but coffee rarely; cider was a common drink; or, if 
something stronger was desired. Now England rum was abundant. A few of the better 
class of families had choice and handsome silver, which was more carefully kept than 
commonly used. The farms were well cultivated and productive. 

Though amusements in most forms were frowned upon, yet, human nature would 
have its way, and neighbors would gather together to crack nuts, to chat and tell stories, 
frequently ending their meeting with a dance. A house-raising, in which all were ready 
to help, was frequently attended with feasting, drinking, and dancing, and there were 
qniltings, corn-huskings, and spinning bees, each ending with a simple supper and a 
dance. And as time went on, in their various seasons there were sleigh-rides, picnics, 
tea-parties, and supper parties, and dancing became common, while on great occasions, 
such as the ordination of a new minister, there was a grand ball, to which all were 
invited. One of the prominent ministers of Connecticut, at the time of his settlement as 
pastor of a leading church of the State, sent out in\'itations, in his own handwriting, to 
all the members of his church and congregation, to come to his house at night and dance 
at the ordination ball. 

Post-offices, or anything like a postal system, were unknown to the early 
settlers, and even after a mail route was established between Boston and Philadelphia 
there was no post to the inland towns, which had to depend for news on chance visitors 
to or from the seaports. Letters were known to be weeks on the way from towns like 
Newport to Northampton or Hadley. No wheel carriages or public conveyances were 
known till about the time of the Revolution. Produce and supplies were carried on 
ox-sleds in winter, and on ox-carts in summer; and journeys for business or pleasure, to 
church, or for visiting, were made on horseback, the women and children riding on 
pillions behind the men. In the larger places, especially in Boston, the houses were 
larger and better, and there was more of gayety, dress, and amusement than in the smaller 
settlements; and on great occasions, such as the taking of Louisburg, there were public 
celebrations, the town being illuminated, bonfires lighted and the streets filled with 
people. 

Marriage was treated merely as a civil contract, and was performed only by the 
magistrates. Weddings, for a time, were quietly celebrated at the house of the bride, 
but afterward became occasions of great festivity, the wedding-feasts, with dancing and 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 



lOI 



--n^*^ ^ 




A PIONEER HOME IN WINTER. 



I02 



OUR COUNTRY. 



merry-making, often lasting for two or three days. The banns of marriage were 
pubHshed from the pulpit or posted in some public place, and marriage sermons 
were often preached on the Sabbath before the marriage. At funerals in the early 
settlements, the dead were borne on the shoulders of bearers and silently laid in the 
earth without remark or prayer at the grave. But before the end of the seventeenth 
century such occasions came to be regarded as important, and were attended with much 
pomp and expense. Leading men became pall-bearers; long processions followed to the 
grave ; scarfs, gloves and mourning rings were distributed, and the day was closed with a 
feast. At one funeral, of which an account is given, over twenty pounds were spent for 
scarfs, gloves, wine and tobacco; and at another, over a thousand scarfs and pairs of 
gloves were given away, and so extravagant became the expense of funeral gatherings 
that at length laws were passed to regulate such ceremonies and make them less costly. 

One marked and distinguishing characteristic of the Puritans was their regard for 
education. One of the earliest acts of the New England colonists was to found a system 
of public schools. In many cases the towns and schools were founded almost at 
the same time; and as early as 1649 education was made compulsory everywhere except 
in Rhode Island. Instruction in these schools was simple and elementary, but it served 
as a beginning and led on to a universal system of public or common schools. These 
were soon followed by Latin schools, at which, and by the clergy, boys were fitted for 
college, the result being that at the time of the Revolution everybody could read and 
write, and illiteracy was almost unknown. 

A college, too, was established within seven years from the time when Endicott and 
his followers landed at Salem. Its professors were men of character and learning, some 
of them eminent, and their instruction was excellent. At the beginning of the eighteenth 
century Yale College was founded in Connecticut; then Dartmouth, in New Hampshire; 
and then Brown, in Rhode Island, so that the number of thoroughly educated and 

learned men among the new settlers, in 
proportion to the population, was very 
large, there being one Cambridge gradu- 
ate to every hundred and fifty of the 
colonists. 

As writers, the clergy largely predom- 
mated, but many laymen also became 
distinguished for their publications. A 
printing-press was established at Cam- 
bridge in 1639, within ten years after 
its settlement. The first newspaper 
appeared in Boston in 1690; and in 
1775, the same city had five newspapers. 
Many persons had good private libraries, 
and at the time of the Revolution there 
was a subscription-libraiy in almost 
every township. 
Political discussion was intelligent and universal. The town 
''::-^''i meetings, and the various questions discussed in them as to- 
"^^-^f^* their relation to the Mother country, trained every one to think,. 




LIFE IN THE COLONIES. I03 

and kept up and cherished the patriotic spirit. The jealousy of external power never 
slept. The love of independence and self-government was a principle as well as a 
sentiment. The people were thoroughly loyal, but they knew, as by instinct, when their 
rights were invaded by unjust laws of trade and British taxation, and when the attempt 
was made to rule them in ways that they felt were unjust and oppressive, then began 
the resistance which led on to the Revolution. 

Such was New England from its first settlement up to the time of the Revolution. 
The people were pure in race, industrious, frugal in their lives, enterprising and prosperous, 
a population of small land-holders, in a high degree educated and thoughtful; trained in 
the principles of liberty and self-government, thus laying the foundations of general 
intelligence and virtue, and of national prosperity and greatness. From this strong and 
vigorous race came, as in Virginia, many great leaders, both in civil and military life, but 
the great strength was in the body of the people. They were all possessed of the same 
general views and principles, and had the same intelligent and resolute purpose, the same 
shrewdness, perseverance, and force, and they carried their principles into the war for 
independence, and into the new national government to which it led. 

Such were some of the prominent aspects of life in the New England Colonies. 
But the picture may be more complete, if we glance at four things which both expressed 
and shaped the character of the people, and moulded the future, not only of the New 
England States, but, more or less, that of the whole country. These were the voluntary 
principle, the practical views of education held by the colonists, the religious views and 
influences prevailing in their communities, and the town meetings of the people. 

An early sermon of one of the leading preachers of the colonies was on the text, that 
for " the soul to be without knowledge is not good" and the sentiment, as well as the 
principle, was that of all the people, while in some of the other colonies education was 
practically regarded as the perquisite and privilege of the higher classes, and no public 
provision was made for the instruction of the great mass of the people. In the New 
England settlements education was looked upon as one of the necessaries of life, both for 
the individual and the family as well as for the State, and as a consequence, from the 
very first, schools and academies and then colleges were established, and the people 
freely taxed themselves for their support. The result was, as might have been expected, 
that a thoughtful intelligence pervaded the people, the power of which was felt for good 
in all the avenues of social, political and business life; and as emigrants in later years 
went forth to the new and rising States of the West, the same spirit went with them, and 
their school systems and school funds, and the general education of the people, may be 
traced to a great extent to the educational views and systems of the early New England 
colonists. 

Another striking feature of colonial life in New England, shared also by the other 
colonies, was seen in the prevalence and workings of the voluntary principle, in civil and 
political matters as well as in religion. The laws of the people were not the edicts of 
superior and arbitrary power dictating to inferiors, as to servants or children, what they 
should or should not do; but were the self-suggested and just rules by which they 
freely bound themselves to what was reasonable and right, and so best for themselves 
and for the community. As in the Mayflower compact, and also in the civil laws of 
Moses, which though divinely given, were always proposed to the people, and v/ere never 
regarded as binding until voluntarily assented to, and accepted by them, so it was with 



I04 OUR COUNTRY. 

the civil laws and regulations of the early New England colonies. All the ancient and 
oriental policies, e.xcept those of Israel under Moses, were founded on force, but those of 
the Puritans, like those of the Jewish nation, rested only on the consent of the people, 
who themselves originated the laws by which they were self-governed. With the 
e.xception of the principle of Itabcas corpiis\ which was not in the Mosaic code, because 
imprisonment was unknown to the Hebrews, there is not a single fundamental principle 
which enters into the constitution of a free State, which was not found in the pohcy of 
the Hebrew commonwealth; and prominent among these was the voluntary principle 
which has shaped the destinies of our country in politics as well as in religion, resting 
government on the authority of the people, and making them the authors of their own 
laws, and the keepers of their own peace, prosperity and happiness. 

The religion of a people both shows and shapes the character of their institutions, 
and also their personal, social and political life; and the religion of the Puritan settlers 
was that of Calvinistic Cliiristianity, which De Tocqueville calls "a democratic and 
republican religion," because, while denying arbitrary and despotic power in the Church, 
it denies it also in the State, and thus brings to a people not only truth but liberty. It 
is of men holding these views that Hume, the liistorian, has said, "The precious spark 
of liberty was kindled and preserved by the Puritans alone, and it was to their sect that 
the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution"; that Taine says, "They 
founded the United States"; that Motley declares, "that to them, more than to any 
other class of men, the political liberties of Holland, England, and America are due "; 
and that Von Ranke, the historian of the Popes, speaks of Calvin as being, by his 
doctrines, "The founder of the free States of North America, as it was his doctrine that 
shaped the men who left home and country in order to preserve their religious freedom 
in the wilds of America "; and as their religion shaped their views of government, and 
gave them ci\il anci religious liberty, so it established in their communities a higher 
standard of personal and public moraHty, and led to that industry, temperance and 
purity in social life which has made New England, in so many respects, a power for 
good to the entire land. 

Our view of life in New England would still be incomplete without a distinct notice 
of one of the most striking features of its public policy — the town meetings. In these 
smaller and miniature republics every measure of importance was publicly discussed, and 
the people were trained to habits of thought and responsibility, and so the way was 
prepared for the larger republic of States and of the Union itself. The best 
developments of our later political life had, if not their origin, yet their steady and sure 
growth in these local assemblies, and there was cherished that spirit of independence and 
those intelligent views both of right and liberty which made each township a little 
independent State, and which, as the country increased, became the balance wheel to the 
immensity of our widespread territory. 

When an American once asked a German what word or words in his language 
expressed the idea of public spirit, the reply was, " we have no word for it, for we have 
not the thing." In a country where the few rule and the great mass of people are 
treated as children or subjects, an intelligent public spirit cannot be expected and is 
never found. But in the town meeting where all are rulers, and at the same time 
voluntary subjects, and so rulers of themselves and of the public destiny, there an 
intelligent and true public spirit takes shape and goes forth in concert of action. 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 



10^ 



It was in the town meetings of the early colonies that the first note of independence 
was struck, that the people resolved they would not be taxed without representation, 
that resolutions of defiance were uttered against the most powerful nation of the world, 
and that the spirit of those resolutions, growing and burning till the whole country was 
on fire, carried us through an eight years' war, and brought us out with victory and 
independence. 

The same spirit and custom of home rule, carried out in. the town meetings and local 
gatherings of the various newer States, have been, and still are, the life of our free 
institutions. As the enterprising residents of the East have, in multitudes, left their old 
homes for the new States and territories, they have carried their town habits with them, 
and the village or town meeting is called, and a little republic is started, and as it lives 
and grows, it becomes the great city, or the new territory or State added to the Union, 
the township feeling pulsating as a life blood through every artery and vein of the 
country, giving to our widespread territory the unity of but a larger township, and to the 
varied parts of our vast commonwealth the unity of the one republic. 




INDIAN BURIAL GROUND. 



I06 OUR COUNTRY. 



Virginia. 



Virginia, the earliest of the colonies, was marked by characteristics which it shared to 
some extent with the southern settlements, though it differed not a little from those of 
New England. It had a rich soil, a mild and genial climate, noble rivers, good harbors, 
and broad tracts of wild and uncultivated land. Its population in 1650 was estimated 
at 15,000 whites and 300 .negroes ; in 1671, at 40,000 persons, of whom 2,000 were 
negroes; and in 1750, at 250,000 whites, and a still larger proportion of negro slaves. 

By nature the region had great attractiveness, and it is no wonder that the early 
settlers were delighted with the prospect that seemed to open for the future, and had 
they been as earnest and persevering as they should have been, the settlements might 
have entered at an earlier day on the prosperity which they afterward enjoyed. But the 
early entrance of slavery, and the troubles with the Indians that early arose, ta.xing the 
energies of the settlers in self-defence, as well as tiie fact that the early colonists 
expected results that could only be obtained by self-denying eiTort, all united to retard 
the growth of what might otherwise have been the most successful and prosperous of all 
the colonies of the New World. 

The colony had no army or navy, but only a militia, made up of the able-bodied 
freemen between the ages of si.xteen and si.xty, but undisciplined and with no efficient 
organization. The judicial system was imperfect, and, judged by later standards, far 
from what was desirable. The judges were without legal training, yet, "being able and 
judicious persons," they administered substantial justice, and were respected and obeyed 
by the people. Trial by jury was established; and, as in all the colonies, so here, the 
common law was adopted except so far as modified by statutes; there were no educated 
lawyers; in 1646, the taking of fees was prohibited; and, as late as 1729, there was no 
formal pleading in the courts. 

There were no towns as centers of population, as in New England, but the people 
were widely scattered. In 1716, Jamestown had only a church, a court-house, and three 
or four brick houses; and in 1732, Fredericksburg, in addition to its leading man, had 
only a merchant, a tailor, a tavern-keeper, and a woman who was both doctress and 
coffee-house keeper; and Richmond and Petersburg existed only on paper. Williamsburg, 
the capital, and the seat of the university, was a straggling village of some two hundred 
houses, of which the governor's was of brick and a handsome structure, while the college, 
as Jefferson said, " looked like a brick-kiln with a roof." The towns which have been 
mentioned were planted, in most cases, in the midst of the forests, and usually consisted of 
the little church, the court-house, the prison with its stocks, the pilloty, the ducking-stool, 
and whipping-post, and one miserable inn, where the judges lodged when they came to 
hold court. The popular habits and occupations of the people explain the smallness of 
the few towns and the scattering of the population through the country. 

In the early days of Virginia, the "professions" were at a low ebb. The so-called 
attorneys were, for the most part, pettifoggers and sharpers, or broken-down adventurers 
from London, and even indented servants who had been convicts. The only man in 
the seventeenth century who attained an honorable eminence as a lawyer was 
Wilham Fitzhugh; and so late as 1734, only two men displayed ability in the profession, 
though a little later. Sir John Randolph was conspicuous as a learned advocate and 
attorney-general. It was not till the close of the colonial period that men of high 



LIFE IN THE QILONIES. 



107 



position and real talent devoted themselves to the law, and it was at this period, in the 
rising conflicts of the Revolution, that such men as Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson 
James Madison, George Mason, and George Wythe studied law and came forward to the 
bar, of which John Marshall was the most distinguished member and the greatest name 
that has adorned the legal profession of the country. The profession of medicine was 
especially low in Virginia. The number of physicians was small, and, with a few 
honorable exceptions, the dispenser of drugs, the rude village surgeon or barber, or 
the unskillful apprentice were its chief representatives, and were without prominence or 
influence. The professedly learned class in the community was the clergy, but most of 
them were more noted for their failings than for their intelligence or virtues. 




VIEW ON THE JAMES RIVER, VIRGINIA, 



From the first settlement of Virginia 
the established church had been the 
Episcopal, and non-conformists were 
oppressed and driven from the colony. 
The Roman Catholics and Quakers 
were persecuted, and all separatist 
meetings were broken up. The Pres- 
byterians were the first to make head against this intolerance, the conflict being 
carried on by Francis Makemie, supported by the large body of intelligent Scotch-Irish 
settlers. By the beginning of the eighteenth century the established church had lost, 
and the dissenters had rapidly gained ground. Though, before 1700, there were but few 
who were of "the sects," yet, by 1776, from half to two-thirds of the population were 
dissenters. Men like Madison and Jefferson strongly opposed the spirit of intolerance, 
and, as the dissenters in the rising conflict with the Mother country were all on the 
patriotic side, the powers and privileges of the old established church were swept away, 
and all denominations were fully tolerated. 



I08 OUR COUNTRY. 

This result was the more rapidly and easily brought about by the character of the 
Episcopal clergy. In the seventeenth century, the most of them, though not highly 
educated, were honest and zealous men and faithful in their various duties, but in the 
next century tiiey rapidly declined in character and influence for good. For the most 
part, their morals were loose and tlieir characters low. They were at the race-course and 
the cockpit, betting on the contending birds and horses; and marriages and funerals and 
christenings they often turned into revels. Bishop Meade, in his history of Virginia, and 
who speaks of it with deep sorrow, says: "There was not only defective preaching, but 
most evil living among them"; and he mentions one who received a stated sum for 
preaching annually four sermons against atheism, gambling, racing and swearing, though 
he was well known to be a gambler, a swearer and a horse-racer. The result, as might 
be expected, followed. The revival of the eighteenth century, with the earnest 
preaching and exemplary living of the dissenters — the Presbyterians, Baptists, 
Methodists, Moravians, and New Lights, — and the lukewarmness and indecision of the 
leaders of the established church in the contest with England, broke down the power of 
the Episcopal clergy and put all denominations on the same footing before the law. 

The trade and business of the colony were for a long time depressed. Small 
shop-keepers were scattered about in the little towns. With the few who were 
merchants, business dragged heavily. Mechanics were few and incompetent ; and most 
articles requiring skill in manufacture, or for domestic use, were brought from England. 
Shipping was in the hands of English merchants and the natives of the other colonies. 
The fisheries, from which much had been expected, were neglected, and the exports, 
except of tobacco, were limited in amount and value. The mineral wealth of the country 
was undeveloped, except as to iron, for the production and working of ^\■hich there were 
mines and forges in various parts of the province. Tobacco was the great staple of the 
colony, which laid its foundation, gave it its wealth, and on which its prospet;ity rested 
for more tlian a century. It was used for a long time as the standard of values and as 
currency. By it ta.xes were paid and things bought and sold. Its cultivation made 
slaves profitable to their owners, and so fastened the curse of slavery on the province. 
Its exportation, which in 1759 was sixty thousand hogsheads, had risen, at the 
Revolution, to a hundred thousand, valued at nearly a million pounds sterling, and 
employing some three hundred vessels in its transportation. 

Most of the early settlers of Virginia were mere adventurers, blindly hoping for 
speedy wealth in the New World, and to them were soon added indented servants, and 
even convicts from the Mother country. These, however, were not the controlling or 
relatively the important elements of the population. The leading Virginians sprang 
from a pure English stock, many of them being the sons of wealthy or noble families, or 
of the yeomanry and merchant class. There was also a small immigration of the 
excellent Huguenots, and also many of the Puritans with their characteristics of 
intelligence and strength, and later still of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, and Germans from 
the middle colonies. These last named elements, however, were comparatively small, 
both in number and influence, and the population as a whole was essentially English. 
The entire community was made up of four classes: The slaves, who after a time formed 
nearly half the population; the indented servants and poor whites; the middle class of 
small farmers and planters and traders; and then, at the top, the great landlords or 
planters who ruled and represented Virginia. 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 



109 



In 1620, as we have seen, a Dutch trading vessel brought into James river twenty 
African negroes who were at once bought as slaves by the planters, but for fifty years 
afterward comparatively few more were imported. From this time on, however, as slave 






'4i 



H 




A VIRGINIA SUMMER SCENE. 



labor was found so profitable on the tobacco plantations, slavery rapidly increased. The 
slave laws were terribly severe, but in practice were greatly disregarded, and for the most 
part the slaves were well treated and cared for. By the great increase of negroes the 
indented white servants, who at first were the laboring class, came to be of little 



no OUR COUNTRY. 

importance, and as their terms of servitude expired, they came to be known as the 
" poor whites," the lowest class in the community. They were ignorant, degraded, and 
looked down upon, even by the negroes, for the most part were idle and shiftless, and 
never worked except to gain a bare subsistence. The free negroes and those poor whites 
formed the criminal class, hansinc: about taverns, drinking, fighting, and committing in 
Virginia a larger proportion of small crimes than occurred in the other colonies. 

The two remaining classes of Virginia society were in many respects alike, the 
difference being one of degree rather than of kind. Both were of good sound English 
stock. Both were land-owners and slaveholders, and with some exception as to a portion 
of the middle class, they associated and intermarried with each other. The majority of 
this middle class were yeomen and farmers. They were independent and men of 
property, a sturdy and manly race, sadly deficient in education and knowledge of the 
world, but generous and hospitable, often acquiring large fortunes, and if successful, 
working their way up to the first positions. They gave strength, support and political 
power to the great planters who represented and ruled Virginia, and gave tone and color 
to the whole of her society. 

The upper class, the great planters, regarded as the aristocracy, were country 
gentlemen, not in the modern sense, but in that of the eighteenth century. Prominent 
and wealthy as they were as a class, their advantages for education were lamentably 
deficient. Public sentiment cared little for the instruction of the people, and many of 
the early governors were decidedly opposed to it. It was as late as 1671 that Sir 
William Berkeley " thanked God that there were no free schools in Virginia, and not 
likely to be for a century to come." And when, in 1692, the attorney-general was 
applied to for a charter for the college of William and Mary, which it w'as urged would 
be " a means of the salvation of souls," his bluff reply was, " Damn your souls, grow 
tobacco!" But though the college was chartered, the statutes of the colony show no 
desire or eff«)rt to provide education for the people, and no system of anything like 
public schools was attempted before 1776. 

In this state of things the young Virginian was left to what instruction a parent 
might give, or to the limited teachings of the parish minister or the freed servant. Some, 
if their parents could afford it, were sent to the college of William and Mary, or to 
England to be educated, but such cases were the exception, and the leading classes were 
far from being well educated, but depended more on their mother wit, of which they had 
an abundant portion, than on any acquired advantages or training for their success in life. 
Their chief interest and employment was the cultivation of tobacco, the sale of the crop, 
the importation of what was desired for the plantation or the family, and the bringing up 
of their negroes for agricultural and other work; to these and their public duties their 
time was given, and their sons were brought up to have the same aims, while the mothers 
and daughters of the household were occupied with domestic matters, the training of 
negro girls, the general cliarge of the family, and the interchanges of social life. The 
style of living among the planters was one of generous profusion and unbounded 
hospitality. Scattered as they were in the widely separated plantations, they were glad 
to welcome any traveller or stranger whose \'isit would give variety to life and bring 
the news which otherwise would not reach them. 

The roads were miserable, and travelling was mosti}- on horseback. The houses of 
the plainer classes were small and of wood, with wooden shutters as openings for light 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 



I I I 



and air; those of the middle classes were larger, and often of brick, with windows of 
oiled paper or small panes of glass ; while those of the planters were spacious, with large, 
low rooms, panelled and wainscoted, handsomely furnished and hung with portaits or 
armorial bearings of the family connections. Located as they were in the midst of 
estates of great natural beauty, and surrounded by tobacco-houses and the huts of the 
negro quarters, while in the distance were seen the herds of the plantation grazing in the 
pastures, and the slaves toiling in the fields, they reminded one of the old manor houses 
of England, and testified to the independence and wealth of the proprietors. The 
houses of some of the richer planters were very expensive and elegant, and furnished not 
only with everything that could administer to comfort, but with all the luxuries that 
wealth could trive; with choice libraries and works of taste and art brought from the 
old country. 

About the second quarter of the eighteenth century, one of these planters writing to 
a friend in England, and suggesting that he send one of his sons to Virginia, says: "You 
may make a prince of him here for less money than you can make a private gentleman 
of him in England. We live here in health, in innocence and security, fearing no enemy 
from abroad nor robbers at home. Our government is so happily constituted- that a 
governor must first outwit us before he can oppress us, and if ever he squeeze money out 
of us he must first take care to deserve it. Our negroes are not so numerous or so 

enterprising as to give us any 
uneasiness or apprehension, nor 
indeed, is their labor any other 
than gardening, and less by far 
than what the poor people of 
other countries undergo. Nor 
are any cruelties exercised upon 
them, unless by great accident 
they fall into the tiands of a 
brute, who always passes here 
for a monster. We all live 
securely with our doors un- 
barred, and can travel the 
whole country over without 
arms or guard ; and all this not 
for want of money or rogues, 
but because we have no great 
city to shelter the thief, or 
pawnbrokers to receive what 
he steals." 

The plantations were gener- 
ally managed by overseers, and 
though they were largely profit- 
able, yet the extravagance of 
the planters in living, and their 
generous and profuse hospitality 
^^^^^^^\a3V led to self-indulgent and impro- 
vident habits, and brought not a 




112 



OUR COUNTRY. 




SUMMER ON THE RAPPAHANNOCK. 



few to bankruptcy and ruin. The ladies of Virginia were highly accomplished in all that 
adorns society, and were notable housekeepers and good wives and mothers, managing 
the household, training the servants, overseeing and directing all domestic concerns, and 
diligently caring for their families. 

The great event of the year was the annual visit to Williamsburg, the capital, where 
society was gay, and English fashions prevailed, and where in times of political 
excitement their leading orators were heard on the great questions of the day. Once a 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES. II3 

year, when the House of Burgesses met and the supreme court was in session, the 
fashionable world of Virginia assembled at Williamsburg, the ladies for acquaintance and 
social enjoyment, and the men for business and the amusements of the time, such as 
horse-racing, cock-fighting, card-playing, feasting and drinking. Prizes were offered for 
rough English sports, the very names of which now sound strangely ; and athletic 
contests, hogshead races, greased poles, and bull-baiting amused the common people; 
while some of the largest estates were dissipated by the gambling which prevailed to a 
frightful extent. Intellectual pursuits found little place. It was not till 1736 that a 
newspaper was published, and this for many years was the only journal in the colony, 
and it was the middle of the eighteenth century before a mail from the north, once in 
two weeks, and another to the south, once in four weeks, both established by 
individuals, were thought necessary and convenient. Books were few, and reading 
limited to comparatively few, and in Governor Spottswood's time he said of two of the 
chairmen of committees of the House of Burgesses, that " They could not spell English, 
or write common sense." And even in the years just prior to the Revolution, Virginians 
read little and studied less, if we except the young and rising men who soon became 
noted in the stirring period then just commencing. 

The subject of politics was always one of interest in Virginia. With brief exception, 
the right of voting was confined to freeholders. The leading class absorbed all the 
important offices of the State. The landed estates were entailed, the bulk of the poperty 
generally going to the eldest son, and it was not till the Revolution that primogeniture 
and entail, the foundation and support of the aristocracy, came to an end. Class 
distinctions were rigidly observed in the churches as well as in social life. Labor was 
looked upon as disgraceful, and for a young man to enter into trade or a counting-house 
was esteemed as shameful. The virtues and vices which are everywhere connected with an 
aristocracy were seen in the community, the lower classes being d^epressed and ignorant, 
while the governing classes were indolent, imperious, and sensitive to restraint, largely 
men of shrewdness and sense, and many of them men of liberal sentiments and 
enlightened understanding, knowing clearly their rights and determined to maintain 
them. And when the conflicts of the Revolution came on they proved themselves fine 
soldiers, sagacious politicians, and clear-sighted and able statesmen. At the call of the 
times, out of the self-indulgent, inert aristocracy came a set of high-minded and energetic 
men, who proved themselves worthy of the foremost places as leaders and patriots, and 
an honor to the American name. This ruling class were small numerical!}', but a body 
which in one generation produced such names as Washington, Marshall, JefTerson, and 
Madison, to say nothing of the Fairfaxes, the Lees, Fitzhughs, Pendletons, Randolphs, 
and many others, is one that may well take rank not only in the history of the United 
States, but in that of the English race, and of the world. Through the prompt action of 
such leaders, Virginia has the high honor of being first of all the colonies, in compliance 
with the recommendation of the Colonial Congress of May 15, 1776, to renounce the 
colonial name and condition, and to form herself into a free, independent, sovereign 
State. Her constitution was adopted the day after the Declaration of Independence. 
s 



114 



OUR COUNTRY. 





UPPER AU SABLE LAKE. 



life in the colonies. 11$ 

The Other Colonies. 

In the different colonies of the New World there were, as we have seen, differences 
and contrasts in the character and aims of the colonists and in the manners and 
habits, and the social and business life of their peoples. The New England colonies 
are on one extreme, and the Virginia colonies on the other, while the remaining colonies 
may be considered as a third group, partaking more or less of the traits of the two 
mentioned above. 

Maryland differed but slightly from. Virginia, out of which her territory was 
■originally taken, having the same climate and natural conformation, the same harbors 
and rivers, and the same fertile soil and noble forests. Except a large number of 
transported convicts, her early settlers had been of excellent character, the principle of 
religious freedom attracting not only gentlemen and substantial farmers from England, 
but many Puritans who had been exiled from Virginia by the established church party, 
as also many Scotch, Irish, German, and Dutch immigrants. 

The chief occupations of the people were agriculture, and tobacco culture was the 
great interest till the close of the French war, when the planters began to turn from 
tobacco to grain, and a large export trade sprang up in wheat and flour. The mining 
and smelting of iron also became valuable. At first there was little foreign commerce 
and few shopkeepers in the small towns, but in the beginning of the eighteenth century 
Annapolis became- a center of trade and fashion. One of the "paper towns" called 
Baltimore, had so grown, that by 1770 it was the first place in the province, and one of 
the five or six considerable towns of the colonies. 

The early Catholic settlers established religious toleration, but before the Revolution 
they had become but a minority of the population, and the Church of England, which 
came into power, had all the vices of the early Virginia church without its safeguards and 
restraints, overthrowing the toleration policy and disgracing themselves by their conduct. 
As a result the dissenters greatly increased so as soon to include the majority of the 
people. The upper and middle classes differed little from each other, or from the same 
classes in Virginia, while the slaves and indented servants, many of whom were convicts 
and paupers, formed a low and degraded class of the population, being idle, shiftless 
and improvident. The planters and plantations, and the hospitality, fashions and 
amusements of the people were very much as in Virginia; though the children of the 
wealthy were sent abroad or to Pennsylvania for education. Among the common 
people education was almost entirely neglected, convicts and servants being almost the 
only teachers, and literary pursuits being scarcely known. The people, though indolent 
and illiterate, were not wanting in shrewdness and independence of spirit, and when the 
troubles of the Revolution came, under leaders like Carroll and Chase, they were faithful 
to the great work of establishing our independence. 

North and South Carolina were at first one, but afterward were separated and 
became two States. The former was mainly an offshoot from Virginia, a refuge for the 
discontented and often thriftless adventurers from the latter, and was deficient in men of 
the ability and commanding character that made Virginia so distinguished. The coast 
was deficient in good harbors, and the soil light and sandy. There was almost a total 
absence of professional men, and the condition of religion, as of education, gave strong 
illustrations of the rudeness of society. At the time of the Revolution, there' were in 



Ii6 



OUR COUNTRY. 



North Carolina but six Episcopal churches, and as many more of the Presbyterians, and 
also of the Moravians. Besides those of these churches, there were no regular ministers, 
though there were not a few illiterate preachers. 

In agriculture, North Carolina was the lowest of the English colonies. Lumber, tar 
and turpentine were produced, and in the southern portion rice, indigo and cotton, but 
tobacco was the great staple. There were no manufactures of any kind. At the time of 
independence there were but three villages large enough to be called towns. The slaves 
and indented servants were the lowest class. The bulk of the population above these 
consisted of "poor whites" and small farmers. There were a few large planters, like 
those of Virginia, but the great body of the men were slothful and inefficient. Society 
in its manners and amusements was like that of Virginia on a smaller and ruder scale. 
At the Revolution there were but two schools in the entire province, and printing was 
not introduced till 1764. Though the people were in many respects lawless, and averse 
to order and government, they were keenly alive to their own rights, and though among 
them there was a body of numerous and active Tories, the great body of the population 
fell in eagerly with the movement against England. They had no great leaders in the 
Revolution, but it is a strong proof of the vigor and soundness of the English race, that 
so lawless and apathetic a people raised themselves at last in the scale of civilization, and 
built up a strong 
and prosperous 
State. 

In South Caro- 
lina the type of 
society was al- 
most wholly like 
that of Virginia, 
differing, if at all, 
in the fact that it 
was intensified. 
The face of the 
country was much 
like that of North 
Carolina, but the 
soil of the whole 
province was 
good, while the 
lowlands along 
the river bottoms 
were extremely 

rich. The climate was variable, with great 
extremes of heat and cold. The sources 
of the population were various, the main 
element among the whites being English, 
but many of the Dutch came from New York, 
and a . large number of Puritans from a river 




LIFE IN THE COLONIES. II7 

Massachusetts, and there was more or less emigration from Virginia, Pennsylvania and 
North Carolina. The Huguenots from France formed an excellent and influential 
element of the population. They were wealthy and of high social position, and 
their descendants were among the leading people of the State. A large emigration 
of thrifty and industrious Germans, and numbers of English and Scotch-Irish from the 
North of Ireland, who were Presbyterians, added e.xcellent elements to the population, 
founding some of the most important families and producing some of the most 
distinguished leaders of South Carolina. 

The charter of 1669, which provided for the support of the English church, 
guaranteed religious toleration to all. The majority of the people were dissenters, and 
the clergy of all denominations were men of excellent character, and devoted to their 
work, and while in Virginia three-quarters of the ministers were Tories, in South Carolina, 
as a rule, the ministers were patriotic, and sided with the opposition to England. The 
common law prevailed; the criminal laws were severe; and the profession of law, as well 
that as of divinity, was more advanced than in most of the southern colonies. 

Almost all the whites were planters or farmers. Rice and indigo were for years the 
chief products, though later cotton became the great staple. Cattle multiplied rapidly, 
many planters having two or three thousand head, and beef was exported at great profit 
to the West Indies. Agriculture, exports, and traffic with the Indians were the chief 
industries, and the merchants who carried on all the trade, though a most respectable 
and prosperous class, were looked down upon by the planters wlio formed the leading 
part of the population and absolutely controlled the State. The poor whites and 
indented servants were few in number, and the planters and slaves were the two great 
classes, forming a pure and despotic aristocracy with its various dependents. The slaves, 
who far outnumbered all other classes of the population, were employed mostly on the 
plantations, and their condition, with the exception of those who were servants in 
families, was almost that of barbarism. The planters lived mostly in Charleston, leaving 
their estates in the charge of overseers. They were much the same country gentlemen 
as those of Virginia, but more polished, and of more refinement of manners and habits of 
life. The life of both se.xes was one of greater lu.xury than in any other colony, and was 
self-indulgent and indolent. There were few very large fortunes, but little or no poverty. 
Those who were not large planters, were either self-supporting farmers, or traders, or 
hunters. There were no free and but few paid schools. P"or the great body of the 
people, general education was scarcely known till after the Revolution. The sons of the 
rich were educated in Europe or in Charleston, or in the schools and colleges of 
New England. In politics and commerce there was no lack of shrewdness and business 
tact, and the love of independence was strong and intelligent. The strongest and best 
of the planters were active and decided in the patriot cause, and notwithstanding a bitter 
Tory influence they carried the colony safely through the struggle for independence, and 
gave the State a strong position in the country, and a place second only to that of 
Virginia in the southern group of colonies. 

Georgia was founded from benevolent motives, and being started by Oglethorpe 
and his associates as a field for pliilanthropic experiments, its population at first was a 
strange mixture of rude and unformed elements, the great body of its immigrants being 
from debtors' prisons or shiftless and bankrupt adventurers and servants of a low class, 
such as would be an injury to any society, especially to one just founded and struggling 



ii8 



OUR COUNTRY. 



for existence. It had some men of standing and good substance, but the great mass of 
the colonists were of the former character. GraduaUy better elements came in, Puritans 
from South Carohna, emigrants from Scotland, and, in 1763, a large body of Quakers and 
other settlers, attracted by the profits expected from trade and agriculture. Land was 
given out in but small quantities, and under unwise restrictions, and slavery and the 
importation of negroes were prohibited, as was also the introduction of rum, which 
greatly injured trade with the West Indies. But both prohibitions were more or less 
evaded, and so law was brought into contempt, trade stagnated, and general 
discontent prevailed. 

Under the royal government in 1752, the restrictions above mentioned were 
removed, and the colony then became prosperous, so that just before the Revolution it 
had a population of over 150,000, of whom half, at least, were slaves. There was very 
little of town life; almost every one was a farmer or planter, and large estates were few. 
Some of the plantations had large and handsome houses, the owners living easy and 
self-indulgent lives, giving much time to amusements and social life. Horse-racing and 
gambling prevailed, and gambling and drinking brawls, with all their excesses, became so 
common with the lower classes as to call for severe laws for their repression. 

Speaking chiefly of these classes, the historian tells us that " No pastimes could 
flourish among them that did not partake ^,-^"-... 

of danger or risk. They formed hunting 
clubs which met once a fortnight. They 
gambled and bet, and gathered in crowds 
to see cocks cut each other to pieces with 
spurs made of steel. They came from all 
parts to enter their horses for races. At 
such times the men of the lower caste 
played faro, wrestled, and seldom went 
home without a quarrel, or perhaps a brutal 
fight. We are told by those who beheld 
these scenes, that the fighting was rarely in 
hot blood, that the preliminaries were cooly 
arranged, and each combatant agreed, before 
he began, whether it would be fair to bite 
off an ear, to gouge out an eye, or to maim 
his opponent in a more terrible v/ay. 
Gouging was always permissible ; every 
bully grew a long thumb or finger-nail for 
that very purpose, and when he had his 
opponent down would surely use it, unless 
the unfortunate man cried out ' enough '. 
If the gouger took out the eye of but one- 
man, his punishment might be a few hour- 
in the pillory, or a few lashes of the whip. 
If he repeated the offence, he might, the 
law declared, be put to death. Yet the 
practice was a favorite one, and common 
as far north as the Maryland border." a cotton field. 




LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 



119 



The early history of religion in Georgia is one of confusion and wrangling. Later, 
under the royal government, toleration was allowed, and the Puritan influence was felt ; 
but the clergy had but little influence for good. Education was at a lower ebb than in 
any colony, the few teachers being of a low class, and too ignorant themselves to be of 
much benefit to others. There was no native literature. Georgia played but -an 




THE CASCADES. 



insignificant part in the difficulties 
with England and in the war of the 
Revolution, and produced but few 
able men to compare in influence 
with those of Virginia and New 
England. 
Pennsylvania and Delaware may be treated together, as for a long time they were 
under the same government, and both had much the same climate, and the same rich, 
though varied soil. At the Revolution the population of both colonies was some 
400,000, of whom nearly a third were negroes. The people were varied ; their 
employment chiefly agriculture. Their exports were grain, flour, timber, and the produce 
of farms; and saw mills and grist mills were numerous. Ships were built at Philadelphia, 
and before the eighteenth century there were manufactures of paper, glass, drugget and 
stockings; and the mining and smelting of iron were extensively carried on. There was 
thrift and enterprise in all kinds of business, and a rich and growing prosperity among 



120 OUR COUNTRY. 

the people. The judicial system was above that of most of the colonies. The bar was 
exceptionally good, and the medical profession was marked by education, and was highly 
respected. With one trifling exception, religious freedom was enjoyed from the 
beeinninsf. The Swedish Lutherans in Delaware formed the earliest churches, but the 
Quakers were for a long time the prevailing denomination. 

In 1750 Philadelphia was second only to Boston in size and importance, and at the 
Revolution it was the first city in America in population. The social and political 
system of the southern colonies was unknown in Pennsylvania, and though the 
descendants of Penn's followers were long the leading men, they could hardly be deemed 
an aristocracy. African slaves were never numerous, but there were many indented 
white servants and redemptioners, and still more of transported convicts, who finally 
became so numerous and troublesome that laws were passed forbidding their importation. 
Crimes were no more common than in the other colonies, but pauperism abounded, for 
the liberal spirit of the founders drew many of a low class who brought crime and 
poverty with them. 

The curse of pirates and smugglers, who infested the American coasts, fell heavily 
on Pennsylvania. Murder at first was the only capital offence, and every form of 
immorality was forbidden, but in the second generation morals had become so relaxed 
that in 1738 criminal legislation was made more severe, work-houses and jails were 
established, and the number of capital offences was increased from one to fourteen. 
Every felony except larceny was made capital on a second offence, and the pillory and 
whipping-post were punishments for most smaller offences. In Philadelphia was the only 
lunatic asylum in the colonies; and a hospital, a reform school, a soldiers' home, and 
many societies for the care of the poor, and aged, and infirm, as well as a watchful regard 
for the health and morals of the people, show that Pennsylvania had made greater 
progress in social improvement than any of the colonies. 

The manners and habits of the people and their modes of life differed greatly. In the 
outlying country districts their log houses were small, their clothing of the plainest kind, 
and their amusements as rude as their means of comfort. The farming class was one of 
great prosperity. The houses were good and well furnished. Luxury was unknown, but 
solid comfort abounded in all their dwellings. Weddings and funerals, which at first were 
attended with feasting and drinking, gradually became more quiet and simple in their 
observances. The amusements and rela.\-ations of the people were found at seed time 
and harvest, in corn-husking and cider-pressing, in house-raising, shooting matches, and 
Christmas sports, all of which vvere tmnes or occasions of social gatherings, and were 
enjoyed to the full. The inns were poor, but their deficiencies were made up by the 
hospitality of the people, at whose homes every traveller was sure of a welcome. 

In the rural districts, the condition of education was wretched, only the barest 
rudiments being taught, and those badlj^ and for small fees. There was little learning, 
less order, and much whipping in the schools everywhere. In the towns the 
case was somewhat better, and in Philadelphia a public school was opened in 1689; 
and in 1749 a plan for e.xtended education was adopted, and charity schools were opened. 
In 1755 a college was added, which was well attended and became the foundation of the 
great university of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia also, greatly through the influence of 
P'ranklin, became noted for literature, arts, and sciences, and was a center of more literary 
activity than any place except Boston. Newspapers were published, and the city had 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 



121 



two public libraries; a post office was early established, and here originated the postal 
system of Franklin. The style of living from the first was plain, but in every way most 
comfortable, but at a later date luxury in dress and habits appeared as prosperity and 
wealth increased. The general intelligence and force of character which marked the 
leading colonists of Virginia and Massachusetts were lacking in Pennsylvania, as they 
were in the middle provinces. The people, as a whole, were conservative and slow in 
action, and were not prompt to come forward in the work of the Revolution. 

New Jersey, with its 
low, flat country, and shut 
in by the great provinces 
of New York and Penn- 
sylvania, had, from the 
outset, little to check its 
growth. Its population, 
which was about 100,000 
, -^ at the Revolution, with but 
\f^'^ few negroes, was mainly of 
English stock, with some 
Quakers and Scotch Pres- 
b yt e r i a n s. Th e chief 
occupation was farming. 
Social life was simple, and 
the modes of living plain. 
Paupers and criminals 
were few, and thefts and 
robberies uncommon. 
Except in the case of some 
wealthy and gentlemen 
farmers, the houses were 
plain, the poorest farmers 
living well and their 
children finding ready em- 
ployment. There were 
few amusements, the 
Puritan views having 
great influence. The pro- 
fessions, though their 
numbers were small, were 
respectable, and their members 
active and influential. The 
Church of England had a 
nominal but no real establishment. Its members 
were but a fraction of the population. The 
energetic and powerful sects were the Scotch 
Presbyterians and the New England Congrega- 
tionalists, their ministers being active and 
earnest, and many of them men of learning. 




THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS. 



1 22 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Through these two denominations the interests of education were greatly advanced, 
the towns taxing themselves for the support of teachers, and a college being founded in 
1746 which grew to be the present university at Princeton, The professions of law and 
medicince included men of character and ability. The early system of courts was simple, 
one of the early governors, it is said, sitting on a stump in the meadow while he gave 
his decisions; but afterwards, courts of various grades were established, and the 
administration of justice became more dignified as well as ef^cient. The government, at 
first proprietary, and then transferred to the crown, was much like that of the ordinary 
royal government in the colonies, and there was the usual jealousy of the governor which 
was common to all the colonies. As a whole the people were conservative, thrifty and 
peaceable, being saved by their situation from the evils of the Indian and French wars. 
They were pure in race, and partook socially and politically of the traits and qualities 
which marked New England and Pennsylvania. 










A COAST SCENE. 



New York was founded by the Dutch only for trade. At the time of the 
Revolution the population of the province was about 170,000, of whom 20,000 were 
negroes. The whites were mostly descendants of the original settlers, but many New 
Englanders had come in, and a large number of French Huguenots had, in 1652, added 
greatly to the numbers in the city of New York. The chief staples of the colony were 
farm products, and the trade in furs with the Indians was extensive and profitable. The 
annual imports and exports were nearly a million pounds in value, and employed some five 
hundred vessels. There were few manufactures, but with its rich soil and the extensive 
and growing trade the province was greatly prospered. The French war brought heavy 
debt and burdensome taxation. 

At the beginning of the eighteenth centuiy, the condition of both the bench and bar 
was very bad, the chief justice having little knowledge of law, and the lawyers being 
often of scandalous character; and even at the Revolution matters were little better, 
trained lawyers being very few. The profession of medicine was even worse than that of 
law, but in 1776 a medical school was founded, and the profession began to attract men 



T.TFE IN THE COLONIESr 



123 




124 



OUR COUNTRY. 



of character and ability. The clergy stood far higher in character and influence than the 
men in either of the other professions, and were for a long time the only learned men in 
the colony. The general policy under the Dutch rule was one of toleration, to which the 
Quakers and Roman Catholics were the only exception ; but when the English came into 
power, the Episcopal was made the established church, taxing all for its support, though 

4- '^'^-. '^ ^' 




A DUTCH HOUSEHOLD. 



it had but a small part of the 
population. At the Revolution the 
negroes were about a sixtli of the 
population. They were mostly em- 
ployed as domestic servants, and 
were properly clothed and fed. 
Crimes were rare , capital offences few, and for lesser offences there were the stocks, the 
pillory, and the whipping-post. Of pauperism there was even less than of crime, and the 
few paupers in town were sold at auction to those who would support them for their 
labor. Education was as general and as good as in the other middle provinces, and 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 



125 



better than in those of the South. The best schools were in the Long Island towns and 
in New York, and were kept some nine months in the year, and in the middle of the 
eighteenth century, Kings College (now Columbia) was established in New York. 

The trading habits of the people drew men of all nations to New York, so that even 

in the seventeenth century sixteen languages were spoken in the province, but one and 

all gave way before the English. Besides the social distinctions caused by wealth, there 

,T was in New York an upper class, stronger and better 

defined than m any of the northern piovmces, and 

remmdmg one of the ruhng class in Virgmia It 

was composed of the proprietors of the large landed 

estates, or manors, v\ho, in manj cases, were entitled 




to representation m the Assembl) , and to 

many feudal privileges which gave them a 

position more like that of the Old World 

nobihty than any one else in the American 

colonies Most of these manors descended, 

without will, to the eldest sons, and the 

influence of their famihes outside of the town 

of New York was immense From the mouth 

of the Hudson to Albany, and far up the 

Mohawk Valley, the farmers were mostly 

Dutch, but further south the mixture was with 

other races. The farm buildings were small 

and their furniture plain, with abundance of 

good hving. The only amusements were picnics in the woods, and corn huskings 

and spinning bees, and in the winter skating and coasting while in the southern parts 

and on Long Island there were tavern parties, bull-baitings, and horse races. 

Albany was the great center of the fur trade for the northern colonies. In the 
earliest times each dwelling was a trading house with a store-room for furs in the second 
story. The houses were low, with peaked roofs, and gable ends to the street ; and in the 



EARLY SETTLERS ASCENDING THE HUDSON. 



126 OUR COUNTRY. 

doorways the old Dutchmen passed much of their time peacefully, smoking and chatting 
about business and their neighbors. Their amusements were few; their women worked 
hard, and were neat and notable housewives. Life was quiet and uneventful, and the 
chief defect of the people was their grasping spirit in trade, which was such that it was 
said that even a Jew could not make a living among them. 

New York became at an early day a great center for trade from all parts of the world, 
and many years before the Revolution the better streets were lighted, paved, and kept 
fairly clean. The houses, for the time, were large and handsome ; the furniture of 
mahogany; china was rare, pewter and copper taking its place, but almost every family of 
standing had its massive silver. The society was mixed, and more polished and hospitable 
than in most of the colonies. The wealthy class was fashionable in dress and manners, 
their tables displaying great lu.xury, and their balls, concerts, private theatricals, and 
clubs furnishing their varied amusements. The Dutch had great liking for holidays, and 
made much of Christmas, New Years', Passover, Whitsuntide, St. Nicholas, and St. 
Valentine's days, and the English had their celebration of the gunpowder plot, and of the 
birthday and coronation of the king, when there were bonfires, feasting, and great 
rejoicing. 

Literature in New York had a feebler existence and less influence than in any of the 
northern colonies. There were many good private libraries, but in most houses there 
were no books except of a religious kind, and the few booksellers had little, except bibles, 
prayer books and spelling books in their stock. As in most of the colonies, people 
married very young, and weddings were occasions of feasting and drinking. Funerals 
were attended with much pomp and ceremony, and funeral feasts were often marked by 
great expense and excessive indulgences. 

In local politics there was more of real excitement than in any of the colonies- 
Candidates kept open houses and feasted their supporters, and on election days bands of 
half drunken electors went through the city, stopping at every house to demand votes. 
Questions as to the relations with the mother country were discussed and fought over 
with unusual violence. Impressment was a sore point; and in 1744 fishermen, who had 
suffered from the press-gang, burnt the boats of an English man-of-war. Matters of 
church policy kept up a constant struggle between the dissenters and the government. 
The Tory influence was strong and active, but the New England spirit was still more 
active and powerful, and took a most decided and efficient part in the steps that led to 
and carried on the Revolution. 

Thus we come to the end or the middle group of the colonies. From the south, 
Virginia influence acted on Delaware and Pennsylvania : and on the north, New York 
was strongly influenced by the colonies of New England, where, as in Virginia, were 
some of the great social and political forces that aided so strongly in shaping the 
movement of the Revolution and the character of the future United States. 



CHAPTER II. 



The French and Indian Wars. 

WITHIN a few years after the discoveries of Columbus and the Cabots, the 
Spanish, Dutch, and French also made discoveries, explorations and settlements 
in various parts of North America ; and each of these nations, by right 
of discovery and possession, claimed parts of what is now the United States. The 
French, especially, were increasing in numbers on the St. Lawrence, and had established 
numerous missions, trading-posts and forts along the great lakes, and on down the Ohio 
river. And, finally, they claimed all the region from the source of the Mississippi to its 
mouth in the Gulf of Me.xico, saying it was a part of New France. Between 1609 and 
1616 Champlain had discovered and named Lakes Champlain and Huron. In 1668 the 
mission of St. Mary's was established on the outlet of Lake Superior. In 1673, 
Marquette, a Jesuit, and Joliet, a trader, went west to reach the Mississippi, and sailed 
down to the mouth of the Arkansas river. In 1679, La Salle sailed through the great 
lakes as far as Green Bay; and three years later he went down the Mississippi to the 
Gulf of Mexico, formally taking possession of the country for France, and giving it the 
name of Louisiana. These and other French settlements led, of course, to rival claims 
between the French and English settlers, and brought on the contests known as the 
French Wars. Of these there were four in number, those of 1689, or " King William's 
War"; of 1702, or "Queen Anne's War"; of 1745, or "King George's War"; and of 
1754, the last and most important, known as the " French and Indian War," though all of 
them were French and Indian wars, as the Indians were greatly influenced by the 
French, and were generally their allies in the conflicts with the English. 

In 1689, the war between England and France extended to the American colonies, 
and brought on t\\ft first, or what is known as King William's War, in which the Indians, 
who were allies of the French, fell upon the settlements in New Hampshire and Maine, 
destroying Dover, and carrying many people off as prisoners to Canada. They also 
captured Fort Pemaquid in Maine, and massacred most of the inhabitants of Salmon Falls 
and Casco Bay. Northern New York was also attacked by a war party of French and 
Indians from Montreal, who burned Schenectady, and killed or took captive many of 
the people. 

In return the colonists resolved to invade Canada; and a fleet and army were sent 
from Boston to attack Quebec ; while nine hundred men from New York and Connecticut 
marched against Montreal. Both expeditions, however, were failures, though, in 1690, 
Port Royal was captured by forces from Massachusetts under Sir William Phipps. The 
war was prolonged for several years, chiefly by hostile invasions and Indian conflicts, in 
which New England suffered much from the Indians, Haverhill being attacked by them 

127 



128 



OUR COUNTRY. 




and forty persons 
1^,, being killed or 
"^^ taken captive. 
^ But in 1697 the 
V' war was ended by 
*f^ the treaty of 
..is Ryswick, leaving 
'^f^ the various bounds 
and territories the 
same as before it 
began. 

The second, or 
"Queen Anne's 
War," was brought 
on by the war 
between England 
on the one side 
and France and 
Spain on the 
other, in 1702, and 
this also involved 
the colonies. In 
it, as before. New 
England was the 
principal sufferer; 
the French from 
Canada, with their 
Indian allies, 
ravaging the 
frontier settle- 
ments, and in 1704 
burning Deerfield, 
and slaughtering 
its inhabitants, or 
canying them as 
prisoners into 
Canada. As in the 
previous war, the 
colonists, in 1707, 
invaded Acadia 
unsuccessfully, and 
again successfully 
in 1710, when Port 
Royal was taken, 
and Acadia, being 
conquered, became 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 1 29 

a British province under the name of Nova Scotia. In 1711, an English fleet, with New 
England forces, saihng to attack Quebec, was wrecked at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, 
and a column of troops which had started to attack Montreal, hearing of the failure of 
the fleet, abandoned the expedition, the whole plan being a failure. In 17 13, this second 
French and Indian war was brought to an end by the Treaty of Utrecht. 

The French, in the meantime, had been extending their settlements in the 
southwest. In 1699, Iberville made a settlement at Biloxi, in Mississippi, which, in 1702, 
he moved to Mobile, now in Alabama, making Mobile the capital of Louisiana. In 171 2, 
Crozat established a colony at what is now Natchez. In 1716, Louisiana was put under 
control of the " Mississippi Company," to which Bienville, who was made governor, 
brought several thousand French settlers, and founding New Orleans, made it the capital. 
At the same time, the French were establishing themselves, in the northwest, having built 
Fort Niagara in 1728; Crown Point, in 1731, and a post at Vincennes, soon afterwards; 
so that by 1750 they had control of all the water routes from the great lakes to 
the valley of the Mississippi, with more than sixty military stations between 
Lake Ontario and New Orleans. 

This progress of the French, however, was interrupted in 1744 by the third French 
and Indian war, known as " King George's War," the only important event of which was 
the capture of Louisburg, a very strong fort, which controlled the entrance to the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence. A force of 3,200 men, under Sir William Pepperell, sailed from 
Boston in April, 1745, and when they were just ready for a combined land and naval 
attack, the fort was surrendered, June, 17, 1745. In 1748, this war was brought to a 
close by the treaty of Aix La Chappelle, when Louisburg was ceded back to the French. 

The first three French wars had grown out of wars in Europe, in which, as colonies 
of Great Britain, the Americans were involved. But the foiirtli and last, the " French 
and Indian War," which was greater than all the others, grew out of the question 
whether the French or English should be supreme on the American continent. The 
former had the grand design of forming a French empire in the rich territory watered by 
the St. Lawrence, the great lakes, and the Mississippi river, hoping to confine the 
English to the Atlantic coast, while they were intending to hold all west of the 
AUeghanies, and so to control the rich trafific with the Indians. They claimed by the 
right of French discovery and settlement ; while the English claimed by the right of 
the discovery by the Cabots. 

Up to 1752, the English had made no settlements west of the AUeghanies, but in 
that year the Ohio Company, under a grant from the King, established a trading-post on 
the Monongahela. The French at once made prisoners of the traders, and began 
building their own forts on the disputed territory. Washington, though only twenty-one 
years old, but even then spoken of as a person of distinction, was sent by direction of the 
British government to demand an explanation of the outrages. The answer to the 
demand was a letter from the French commandant, refusing to withdraw the French 
from their position. And as this reply was unsatisfactory, in 1754 a regiment was sent to 
the disputed territory, under Colonel Frye, with Washington as second in command. 
While these troops were on their )vay, the French had driven of? the English and 
completed their fort, which they named Du Quesne. Washington, hastening forward, 
met the French at Great Meadows, and attacked and defeated them, and there built a 
fort called " Fort Necessity." While here, Colonel Frye died, and Washington became 

Q 



I30 



OUR COUNTRY. 




WASHINGTON'S ATTACK ON THE FRENCH. 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES. I3I 

chief commander. His fort being attacked by a strong body of French, he was 
compelled to surrender, but was allowed, with his troops, to go back to Virginia. 

The struggle being thus commenced, both France and England prepared for war, 
and the colonies, acting with England, did the same. Delegates from the various 
colonies met at Albany, and by a treaty of peace secured the alliance of the Six Nations, 
or Iroquois. In the spring of 1755, the British government sent out two regiments, 
under General Braddock as commander-in-chief, and he, with the colonial governors, 
planned three campaigns: one, under Braddock, against Fort Du Quesne; a second, 
under Shirley, against Fort Niagara, and a third against the fort at Crown Point, on 
Lake Champlain. Nearly all the colonies raised troops and voted money and supplies 
for these campaigns. While these preparations were going on, it was determined to 
attack the French in Nova Scotia, including Acadia, which was now a British province 
and ruled by an English governor. The French community, a peaceful, happy and 
innocent people, wished to remain neutral during the war ; but the English, fearing that 
they might be led to side with the French, sent an expedition and captured the two 
forts at the head of the Bay of Funday, and kidnapping the French settlers to the 
number of 7,000, forced them on board ships and exiled them to the various colonies. 
It was a most sad and cruelly barbarous deed, which no plea of necessity could ever 
justify, and which brought great suffering to the poor Acadians. 

Braddock's column of 2,500 troops marched to attack Fort Du Quesne, but when 
some ten miles from it they were attacked in the woods by the French and Indians, and 
the whole column was thrown into confusion and fled, and Braddock himself was killed. 
Washington, who was his aid-de-camp, with his little band of Virginians, covered the 
retreat, and the expedition was given up, the whole force returning to Philadelphia. 
The second column, under Shirley, marched as far as Oswego, where a fort was built ; 
but storms, sickness, and the desertion of the Indians caused the enterprise to be 
abandoned. The third column, under Johnson, after building Fort Edward on the 
Hudson, moved to Lake George, and after a skirmish of part of his forces with the 
French, in which the former were defeated, the main bodies joined battle, and the 
French, under Dieskau, were badly beaten, and he was taken prisoner in the battle of 
Lake George. Not feeling strong enough to attack Crown Point, Johnson built and 
garrisoned Fort William Henry, and then disbanded his forces. 

In 1756, Lord Loudon was sent from England as commander of the English forcesi 
and the Marquis of Montcalm was made successor of Dieskau. In August, Montcalm 
captured the fort at Owego, taking 1,400 prisoners and a quantity of stores, and then 
returned to Canada, and as a result of this heavy loss, the English plans of campaign for 
the year were given up. In July, 1757, Montcalm beseiged Fort William Henry, which 
was defended by 2,000 troops. General Webb, with 4,000 troops, was at Fort Edward, 
only fifteen miles off, but as he sent no assistance. Fort William Henry was surrendered 
August 9th, and a number of prisoners were killed in cold blood by the Indian allies 
of the French. 

In 1758, that great man, William Pitt, was at the head of colonial affairs; and 
determining to carry on the war with vigor, he sent Abercrombie to take the place of 
Loudon, with an army of 22,000 regular troops, and 28,000 of the colonial forces; and 
three expeditions were planned by Abercrombie ; one against Louisburg, one against 
Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and one against Fort Du Quesne. In June, the English, 



}T,2 



OUR COUNTRY. 



with a large fleet and 12,000 troops under General Amherst, attacked Louisburg, which, 
after a vigorous resistance, was obliged to surrender, and the whole of Cape Breton 
Island, with 6,000 prisoners and a large amount of ammunition was taken. In the second 
expedition, Abercrombie led 15,000 men against Ticonderoga, which was held by 
Montcalm with 4,000 troops, but he was forced to retreat, and his place was supplied by 
General Amherst. The capture of Fort Frontenac was the only success of this 
expedition. The third movement of the campaign against Fort Du Quesne, in 




WOLFE S COVE. 



November, under General Forbes, with 9,000 troops, was successful. The French 
abandoned the fort, and the name was changed to Fort Pitt, now Pittsburg. 

The great object of the next campaign, in 1759, was the capture of Quebec, though 
operations were planned against Fort Niagara, and also against Ticonderoga and 
Crown Point. For the attack on Quebec, General Wolfe, with a fleet carrying 8,000 
troops, sailed up the St. Lawrence to Orleans Island, a few miles below the city, and 
landing, began preparations for an attack. This move led Montcalm to weaken the 
garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the result of which was that Amherst 



LIFK IN THE COLONIES. 



133 




NIGHT ATTACK ON COLONIAL SCHOONER. 



134 



OUR COUNTRY. 



captured Ticonderoga in July, and Crown Point in August, and Johnson took Fort 
Niagara in July. Wolfe, after some preliminary movements, which were unsuccessful, 
scaled the "Heights of Abraham," where, on the 13th of September, was fought the 
battle which decided the war. Wolfe, though twice wounded, still led on his troops, till, 
by a third wound, he was killed, as Montcalm also was. After hours of stubborn 
fighting, the English carried all before them, and five days afterward, Quebec 








Al lACK ON THE KORT AT PRESQUE ISLE. 



was surrendered, and in 

%, September of the next year, 

'-• Montcalm was also taken, 

in and soon all Canada was 

' - given up, thus closing the 

ciiiitest in America for Eng- 

- lish supremacy in 1 760. 

The war between France 
and England still continued 
elsewhere till 1763, and 
through these three years 
the Indians kept up their 
hostility, especially in the 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES. I35 

northwest, where all the forts west of Oswego, except Fort Niagara, Fort Pitt, and 
Detroit, were captured by them, and hundreds of persons were massacred or driven from 
their homes. 

The seige of Detroit was marked by many thrilling occurrences. One of the 
schooners was returning from Niagara with despatches, having a crew of only a dozen 
men, when, on the night of August 4th, she was attacked in the Detroit river by fully 
three hundred Indians, who were not discovered until they were climbing the sides of the 
vessel. Rushing to the gunwales, the crew fought desperately with spears and hatchets ; 
but the savages could not be beaten back. The mate, seeing that all was lost, shouted 
an order to fire the magazine and blow up the boat. Several Indians understood the 
command, and the next moment the entire party had leaped overboard and were 
swimming frantically for shore. The captain was killed and several of the crew disabled. 

There was also hard fighting at Fort Presque Isle, which stood near the present site 
of Erie, Pa., and was under the command of Ensign Christie, with a courageous garrison. 
Early on June 15th, it was surrounded by two hundred Indians, most of them from the 
neighborhood of Detroit. The garrison immediately withdrew to the block-house, 
prepared to fight as long as the last hope remained. Burning arrows rained upon the 
roof, which repeatedly caught fire, but was often extinguished by the cool daring of 
the soldiers. The assailants threw up a rude but strong breastwork on the ridge 
commanding the fort, and for two days and a half the desperate fight continued. A 
number of the Indians, with unusual daring, attempted to run from behind their 
breastworks and shelter themselves close to the walls of the fort, but the watchful 
garrison picked off every one of them. 

In the meantime, they began a mine, and, there being no way of checking them, 
they succeeded in reaching and firing the house of the commanding officer. The 
smoke and heat almost stifled the garrison, but they held out bravely, and whenever 
they could catch sight of a dusky figure, they riddled it with bullets. All that night 
and through the next day the heroes fought and labored with unsurpassed courage. 
Meanwhile, the assailants pushed their mining operations until the sound of their 
digging was heard under the edge of the block-house itself. Further resistance could 
avail nothing. Ensign Christie agreed to surrender under pledge that he and his 
exhausted men should be allowed to depart unmolested. The promise was given, but 
broken. All were bound and taken as prisoners to Pontiac's camp. 

The colonists, at length, rose in force and subdued the savages. The war between 
France and England was ended by the "Treaty of Paris" in 1763, when France gave up 
to England all her American possessions east of the Mississippi, except New Orleans, as 
she gave those west of the Mississippi to Spain ; and Spain gave Florida to England in 
exchange for Havana, which England had taken in 1762. Those various conflicts 
resulted in the full establishment of English supremacy over North America as 
then known. 



136 



OUR COUNTRY. 




MEETING OF WASHINGTON AND ROCHAMBEAU. 



PERIOD IV. 



THE REVOLUTION. 



CHAPTER I. 

Causes of the Revolution. 

WHEN the question is asked, "What led the colonies to revolution and so to 
independence of Great Britain?" the usual answer is, that it was the 
attempt of England to impose taxes on them without their consent or 
representation. This, however, is but part of the truth. The imposition of taxes, and 
the passage of unjust and oppressive laws, were the occasion of the uprising of the 
colonies ; but the causes of it are to be found far back in English history, and in the 
character and training of the colonists themselves. 

Before the thirteenth century, and as influenced by the Norman invasion, the idea 
of personal rights had found lodgement in the minds and hearts of the English people. 
And in the Magna Charta, wrested by the Barons from King John at Runnymede in 
1215, and still more in the Barons' War in 1263-67, and in the meeting of the first 
House of Commons in 1265, we see the early germs of that personal and political freedom 
which has been gradually but steadily growing to the present day. 

The Protestant reformation was the world's recoil from arbitraiy authority, and so 
the suggestion of individual and personal rights in the doctrines of Calvin, which were 
the outgrowth of that reformation, was generally received by the early settlers, and 
teaching, as they did, the individuality of man before God, they impressed the idea of 
personal responsibility, and with this came the sense of personal rights. "In this view," 
says Bancroft, " Calvin held a foremost rank among the champions of modern 
democracy," and " the promulgation of his theology was one of the longest steps that 
mankind have taken toward personal freedom." Ranke says of him, in reference to his 
views of personal responsibility, " We may consider him the founder of the free States of 
North America, as it was his doctrine that shaped the men who left home and country 
to preserve their religious freedom in the wilds of America." In the religious views of 
the Puritans was the foundation of their political principles; and "the rights of 
Engl':5hmen " was an expression full of meaning to the early settlers of the colonies. 

So early as 1638, Mr. Hooker, in opening the session of the general court, in a 
sermon of wonderful power, maintained " that the foundation of authority is laid in the 

137 



1.18 



OUR COUNTRY 



free consent of the people," and in the following year 

the freemen, assembled at Hartford, idopted a written 

constitution which acknowledged no 

government outside of Connecticut 

itself. This was the first written consti- 

•tution known to history, and the first 

that created a government, " marking 

the beginnings of American democracy, 

of which Thomas Hooker, more than 

any other man, deserves to be called the 

father." In it '' all the attributes of 

sovereignty, not expressly granted to the 

general court, remained, as of original 

right, in the towns." In the same spirit 

the elder Winthrop said, that " The 

safety of the commonwealth was the supreme law , and 

if, in the interests of that safety, it should be found 

necessary to renounce the authority of Parliament, the 

colonists would be justified in doing so." 




In all these things we 



find the germ idea of personal )^^ \ -^J% 

independence, and of allowing no government without consent ' '"'" '•'^^''^ 

and representation by the people, an idea to which the discussions of the 
early town meetings of New England and the colonial legislatures gave the '/^ i W 
stability of a principle intelligently understood and firmly held. It is true that 
the colonists had various grievances of which they reasonably complained, such 
as unsatisfactory charters, bad governors, navigation laws, and trade regulations which 
bore heavily on their industry and commerce. But in the very origin of the colonies, and 
in the spirit which the colonists brought with them from England, were the elements of 
personal independence and future freedom. They had left their homes for the New 
World, not only in the spirit of self-reliance and independent enterprise, but with a 
knowledge of their personal and political rights, and from the high and strong motives 
of civil and religious liberty. And in opposing the arbitrary acts of the English 
authorities, and in managing the affairs of the early settlements, they were ever ready to 
assert their right to the "liberties of Englishmen." More than once they drove out or 
imprisoned the royal governors, and refused the supplies they demanded. When a clerk 
of the Virginia Council had betrayed their secrets, they cut off his ears, and sent him to 
the pillory, and when the charters of the colonies were recalled, in many cases the 
demand was refused or evaded, and in Connecticut, at the demand of Andros, the charter 
was brought in and laid upon the table, yet before it could be taken, the lights were 
suddenly blown out and it was spirited away and hidden in the hollow of the tree, which 
for a hundred and seventy years was known through New England as the famous 
"Charter Oak." 

The spirit of freedom had, from the first, been steadily growing in the colonies, and 
they insisted on the right of controlling their own internal affairs. They admitted that 
England might regulate commerce, as in the " Navigation Acts," but denied her right to 
tax the colonies without their consent. But in 1764 Parliament asserted its right of 



THE REVOLUTION. 1 39 

taxation, and in the following year passed the " Stamp Act," by which all deeds, notes, 
bills and other legal documents had to be on stamped paper which the British revenue 
officers were to furnish at fixed rates. The news of the passage of this Act reached 
America in April, 1765, and at once roused both indignation and alarm. The legislature 
of Virginia, which was in session, led by the eloquent Patrick Henry and his able 
associates, passed resolutions which claimed for the people all the rights of British 
subjects, and their action was everywhere discussed, and in all the other colonies had 
great effect. Associations called " Sons of Liberty " were formed. The stamps that came 
from England were unpacked, or seized and burned ; the stamp officers were compelled 
to resign ; and the Act itself was everywhere denounced, and taxation without 
representation was boldly declared to be tyranny. The people were everywhere aroused. 
The merchants agreed to import no more goods from Great Britain till the Stamp Act 
was repealed. The people denied themselves all luxuries from England, and the trade 
with that country was almost entirely stopped. The very children in the streets caught 
the spirit of the times, and learned the cry '' Liberty, property, and no stamps ! " 

Massachusetts, at the suggestion of that sterling patriot, Samuel Adams, proposed 
the calling of a convention or congress from all the colonies, and it met in New York, 
October 7, 1765, a month before the Stamp Act was to have gone into effect. Nine 
colonies were represented in it by twenty-eight delegates. After full deliberation, the 
Congress agreed on a statement of grievances and a declaration of rights, claiming in 
strong terms the right of being free from all taxes not laid, or assented to, by themselves, 
and a petition on the subject was sent to the king and Parliament ; and these 
proceedings ^vere heartily and strongly approved by the various colonial Assemblies. 

When the first of November, the day fixed for the Stamp Act to take effect, came, 
the stamp officers had been compelled to resign, and not a stamp was anywhere to be 
seen. Tlie colonists, by their united and firm stand, had made the law of no effect. The 
great question now was, "would England endeavor, by force, to compel the colonies to 
obedience?" It did not, for several reasons. First, some of her ablest statesmen, 
among whom were William Pitt and Edmund Burke, took sides with the colonies, 
believing them to be right ; and, second, because the British merchants, finding their 
business greatly suffering from the loss of the American trade, petitioned Parliament for 
the repeal of the Stamp Act; and it was accordingly repealed, Februaiy 22, 1766. All 
now might have been well, but that Parliament, while repealing the Stamp Act, passed 
another bill asserting its supreme power over the colonies in all things, which of course 
implied the right of ta.xation. And they went on to lay taxes in the shape of import 
duties on various articles, among which was tea. Other Acts also remained, and among 
them the Act requiring quarters to be provided for the English troops, which the 
colonists refused to do. 

When the news of these measures reached America the ill-feeling broke out afresh, 
and the press, the pulpit, and the legislatures everywhere denounced the Acts of 
Parliament. In Boston, a sloop belonging to John Hancock being seized for the evasion 
of the revenue laws, the seizure resulted in a riot; and in New York, a conflict took 
place between the British troops and the " Sons of Liberty," in which one citizen was 
killed, and several were wounded, January 17, 1770, this being the first blood that was 
shed in the rising revolution. In Boston, on March 5th, the soldiers, being provoked by 
the taunts and jeers of the crowd, fired upon them and killed three persons and wounded 



I40 



OUR COUNTRY. 



several others. This was called the Boston massacre, and it raised tremendous 
excitement, not only in that region but through all the colonies. 

The attempt to raise a revenue by taxes having failed. Parliament took off the duty 
on most articles, but to assert and carry out the principle that they had a right to tax the 
colonies, they still kept the tax on tea. The tax was but trifling, only three pence on 
the pound, and it was thought that to so small a duty the Americans would not object; 
but it was not the amount, but the principle to which they objected, and when the tea 
arrived at various ports, it was either sent back or locked up. When a cargo of tea 
reached Boston, the people would not allow it to land, and the governor would not allow 




BUILDING IN BDSTON WHERF. THE TE\ PLOT IS SUPPOSED TO H.\VE HEEN HATCHED. 

it to be sent back ; and the great question as to what should be done was publicly 
discussed in a great gathering of seven thousand men. And, as night came on, 
Samuel Adams, rising in the dimly lighted church, said solemnly, " This meeting can do 
nothing more to save the country." As arranged beforehand, at once there was a wild 
war-whoop outside, and a band of men, disguised as Indians, rushed to and boarded the 
ships, and emptied the entire cargo of tea into Boston Harbor, December i6, 1773. And 
in every colony the news of this bold and decisive act was welcomed with the warmest 
approval. 



THE REVOLUTION. 



141 



When the news of these doings reached England, the king and people were alike 
determined to punish the rebellious colonists, and Parliament passed what was called 
"The Boston Port Bill," which closed the port of Boston, and they sent General Gage as 
civil governor with four regiments to carry out the provisions of that bill, and to arrest 




^W^: 














BUILDING IN PHILADELPHI'A WHERE THE FIRST CONGRESSES WERE HELD. 



and bring to trial the patriot leaders, of whom Samuel Adams was the foremost. They 
also passed a second Act, called "The Charter Act," annulling the charter of 
Massachusetts, forbidding the town meetings and public gatherings, a measure far graver 
and more offensive than the Port Bill, and one that struck at the political life of every 
colony alike. They also transferred the trial of certain officers from the colonies to 



14: 



OUR COUNTRY. 



England, provided for quartering the troops in Boston, and so changed the borders of 
the old colonies as to threaten the territories of Virginia and Pennsylvania, thus rousing 
the anger of all the colonies alike. 

Now, for the first time, the colonies began to think of armed resistance, but wisely 
seeking mutual consultation, the first Continental Congress was called, and met in 
Philadelphia, September 5, 1774. At the north. New York moved first, led by the wise 
counsel of John Jay and his associates; and at the south, Virginia, aroused by the 
eloquence of such patriots as Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee, voted for the 
Congress; and this action of the great southern province brought in all the other 
southern provinces, except Georgia, whose governor prevented the election of delegates. 
Of this Congress, Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, was chosen president, and Charles 
Thomson, secretary. Among its members were George Washington, Patrick Henry, 
John and Samuel Adams, John Jay, Christopher Gadsen, and John Rutledge. The 
Congress voted to sustain Massachusetts in her resistance to England ; signed an 
agreement not to export or import to or from England; passed resolutions against the 
slave trade; appointed a second Congress; set forth to the world a declaration of rights, 
and prepared addresses both to the king and the people of Great Britain. 

The issues involving the right of taxation, and the question of retaining the charters 
were firmly and strongly met, and the way was fairly open for the adjustment of all 
difficulty with England if that country had but acted with wisdom. But the king and his 
ministers, sustained by the Parliament, rejected the proposals of Congress. Massachusetts 
was declared to be in rebellion, and preparations were made for war. Lord Howe was 
sent out with a fleet, and made proposals of compromise which were rejected. Gage 
attempted to seize the public stores at Salem, but was prevented from doing it. 
Dunsmore, who had seized powder in Virginia, was forced by the people, led by 
Patrick Henry, to give it up. In September, 1774, Gage fortified Boston Neck, and 
seized the ammunition and stores in the arsenals at Cambridge and Charlestown. The 
"Minute Men" were organized in Massachusetts, as a "Committee of Safety," under 
John Hancock. Washington organized the militia of Virginia. And Patrick Henry, 
reviewing the situation of the colonies, and their duty to themselves and their principles, 
had declared in thunder tones, "We must fight I I rej)eat it, sir, we must fight!" 




CHAPTER II. 



The War of the Revolution. 

IN April, 1775, when Parliament had declared the colonies were in rebellion, Gates had 
sent some of his troops to Concord to seize some military supplies there, and on 

their way, at Lexington, they found a small body of militia, whom the English 
officer commanded as " rebels " to disperse. As the Americans did not obey, he ordered 
his soldiers to fire. They did so, and eight Americans were killed and several wounded, 
while the others, without firing, dispersed. The British marched on and destroyed the 
stores at Concord. But at once the militia around Concord and Lexington hastily 
gathered, and attacked the British troops as they were returning, killing two and 
wounding several ; and as the British, after firing, moved on, the " Minute Men " poured 
in their deadly fire from the woods and rocks and fences, till the retreat became a rout, 
and the whole British force would have been destroyed but for reinforcements sent to 
their aid, under the cover of which they made their way to Charlestown as a place of 
safety, having lost, in killed and wounded, about two hundred and eighty, while the loss 
of the Americans was only ninety. 

The news spread like wildfire. From every part of New England the militia 
hastened to Boston, and the King's army was soon beseiged by twenty thousand men, 
and fortifications were raised confining the British to the Boston peninsula. In May, the 
bold and hardy Vermonters, under Ethan Allen, surprised and captured Ticonderoga 
and Crown Point, securing military stores of great value to the Americans. In June, the 
leaders of the forces around Boston, anticipating the supposed plans of the British, took 
possession of the high grounds near Charlestown, thus commanding Boston and the 
shipping in the harbor. On the night of the i6th, Colonel Prescott, with about a 
thousand men, crossed the Charlestown Neck, and between midnight and sunrise threw 
up an earthwork on Breed's Hill. At day-break, the British men-of-war in the harbor 
opened fire on the redoubt, and the batteries on Copp's Hill followed; and by noon 
some three thousand English troops, under General Howe, were on their way to storm 
the rude earthworks, behind which were the American forces, some fifteen hundred 
in number. 

In the afternoon the battle of Bunker Hill began. Setting fire to Charlestown, and 
under cover of a heavy cannonade, the British advanced against the intrenchments. 
Twice they were driven back with slaughter, mowed down by the heavy and sure fire of 
the Americans. Rallying a third time with difficulty, they were received with another 
deadly volley, but the powder of the Americans being exhausted, their fire slackened and 
ceased. Having no bayonets, the Americans fought with clubbed muskets, yielding inch 
by inch, till at last Prescott gave the word to retreat, when the Americans fell back, 
leaving the British in possession of the field. The loss of the English, in killed and 

143 



144 



OUR COUNTRY. 



wounded, was over a thousand, of whom eighty-three were officers, while the American 
loss was less than five hundred. Covered by the rude intrenchments, the colonists had 
twice repulsed with slaughter the English troops, fully equipped and thoroughly 
disciplined as they were. They had completely crippled Gage, and the British, as the 
result of the conflict, had merely the ground on which they stood. The idea that the 
Americans would not fight was at an end, and the defeat of Bunker Hill was of more 



value to the colonists than many 
hottest of the battle was fought, a 
has been erected, at a cost of $100,000. 
subscription. The corner-stone was 
country in 1825. The monument 
dedication Daniel Webster delivered 
Before the battle of Bunker Hdl, 
met in Philadelphia, May 10 1775 
government of the now United btates, 





victories. On the ground where the 
granite monument 220 feet in height 
This sum was raised by popular 
laid by Lafayette, on his visit to this 
was completed in 1842, and at its 
one of his best addresses, 
the second Continental Congress had 
It took control of the general 
voted to raise an army of twenty 







THE MONUMENT ON BUNKER HILL. 



thousand men; authorized the issue of $3,000,000 of paper money, and appointed 
George Washington commander-in-chief of the continental army. On the third of July, 
he took command at Cambridge, where he found some 14,000 militia, brave and patriotic, 
but poorly armed and unorganized, and wanting in almost everything needful for war. 
In the face of almost inconceivable difficulties, he gave order and unity and strength 
to his forces, and though winter set in with great severity, he moved steadily onward. 



THE RKVOLUTION. 



145 



drawing his lines closer and closer around Boston, till, at last, from Dorchester Heights 
the bombardment began, and the British, who had come in the full confidence of 
victory, were compelled to evacuate Boston, which was entered by American troops 
March 17, 1776. 

In the meantime, the excitement had spread through the other colonies, in every one 
of which the power of the royal governors was destroyed ; and in North Carolina, the 
patriots met at Charleston in May, 1775, and issued the celebrated "Mecklenburg 




STATUE OF JEFFERSON. 



Declaration," declaring their independence of Great Britain, thus, as some suppose, 
anticipating the well known Declaration of Independence. In carrying on the war, the 
invasion of Canada was planned, and St. Johns, and then Montreal was taken in 
November. An attack was also made on Quebec, which was unsuccessful, and in it the 
gallant Montgomery was killed, and Benedict Arnold was wounded. As spring 
advanced, the British forces were increased, and the American forces were driven back, so 
that the Canada invasion was a failure. 
10 



OUR COUNTRY. 




IE PKlbUM bUlF "jliKbtV. 



THE REVOLUTION. I47 

Meanwhile, the British government was preparing to push hostihties with force. 
Their army was raised to over 40,000 men, including some 17,000 mercenary Hessians, 
hired from the petty German princes, and preparations were made to assail the colonies 
at various points. The first attack was upon Charleston, South Carolina, the harbor of 
which was protected by a rude fort, garrisoned by 400 men under Colonel Moultrie. 
General Gadsden defended the approach by land. The attack was made by the British 
fleet, under Sir Peter Parker, and for twelve hours they poured their shot and shell upon 
the fort, but in vain ; while the land attack, led by Clinton and Cornwallis, was also 
repulsed, the attack being a complete failure and the British losses so severe that their 
plan of capture was abandoned, and their forces returned to New York. This victory, at 
Charleston, gave safety to the whole southern coast. 

In the early history of the difficulties with the mother countiy, the colonists had still 
been loyal to England, but the opening of the war changed all this, and though 
there were numerous Tories in the colonies the great body of the people were now for 
entire independence of Great Britain. Accordingly, on' the 7th of June, 1776, 
Richard Heniy Lee, of Virginia, offered in Congress the resolution, which was 
seconded by John Adams, that "The United Colonies are, and ought to be, free 
and independent States." This resolution was adopted on the 2d of July, and a 
committee was appointed to prepare a " Declaration of Independence." This was 
written by Thomas Jefferson, and was adopted July 4, 1776, so that the thirteen 
colonies became the United States of America. 

With the declaration of independence the colonial system came to an end, and the 
colonies became States. But six dreary years of warfare were to pass before actual 
independence was achieved. 

Washington at this time had moved his forces from Massachusetts to New York, 
where Howe, reinforced by Clinton, had 30,000 troops. Howe's plan was to take 
Brooklyn, and then to capture New York; and at the end of August the British landed 
on Long Island, which was defended by General Putnam, with 5,000 men. In the battle 
of Long Island, August 27th, the Americans were defeated with heavy loss, after which 
they retreated to the fort at Brooklyn, and while the British delayed attacking them, 
Washington, with great skill, and under cover of a fog at night, withdrew his forces to 
New York ; and later, in September, evacuated that city and moved to Harlem, on the 
way to which they had a skirmish with Howe's troops, after which Washington fell back 
to a strong position on North Castle Heights, and Howe retraced his steps, taking 
Fort Washington, while Fort Lee being found untenable, the Hudson was open to 
the British. 

Leaving Lee to hold the position at North Castle, Washington retreated to 
New Jersey, and on the 8th of December crossed the Delaware. The British, under 
Cornwallis, followed and took possession of New Brunswick, Trenton and Princeton. By 
desertion, and by the expiration of the term of service, the American army was now 
reduced to about 3,000, and Charles Lee, who was afterward proved to be a traitor, 
disobeying orders, failed to bring his forces to Washington's aid, and luckily was himself 
captured by the British. Sullivan, who succeeded Lee, joined Washington on the 
20th of December. The British forces were approaching in strength, the army was 
greatly weakened. New Jersey and Pennsylvania were full of panic and fear; and 
Congress, in alarm, had left Philadelphia. Many of the loyalists were coming in and 



148 



OUR COUNTRY. 




s 



THE REVOLUTION. I49 

accepting the pardon offered by Howe, and the prospect for the future was dark and 
discouraging. It was the supreme moment of the Revolution, and the fate of the 
colonies seemed trembling in the balance. The great conflict, with all its tremendous 
issues, was centered on one man, and he at the head of a small, dispirited and 
neglected army. 

Washington saw and felt the full gravity of the situation, and knew that for moral 
effect, far more than for any military gain, a victory must be won. Crossing the 
Delaware on Christmas night, he fell unexpectedly on a body of 1,500 Hessians, at 
Trenton, capturing 1,000 men, with guns, cannon and flags, while he lost but four men. 
This bold and decisive stroke encouraged the army greatly, and it was soon increased in 
numbers and moved over the river to Trenton. Here Cornwallis was preparing to attack 
them, when Washington, leaving his fires burning, marched back by another road, in the 
very direction by which Cornwallis had just come, and entering Princeton, routed the 
regiments left there by Cornwallis, thus regaining nearly the whole of New Jersey, and 
confining the British to New Brunswick and Amboy. He then marched to Morristown, 
and both armies, in these positions, went into winter quarters. On December 8th of this 
year, the British fleet, under Sir Peter Parker, took possession of the island of 
Rhode Island, and by military force held that State. 

In 1777, there were several raids and surprises on both sides, the British burning 
Danbury, in Connecticut, but being driven back to their vessels with loss; and the 
American militia attacking the British at Sag Harbor, burning several of their ships and 
destroying supplies. But the most important and encouraging event was the despatch of 
supplies from France, through the efforts of Beaumarchais, and with the connivance of 
the French government. 

During the winter, Washington had greatly recruited his army, and had now some 
10,000 men. About the end of July, the English army and fleet sailed from New York 
for Chesapeake Bay and landed at Elkton, intending to march from there to 
Philadelphia, and Washington, hastening south to meet them was joined by Lafayette, 
De Kalb, and a few other French ofificers. The opposing forces soon met at the river 
Brandywine, but the Americans, under Sullivan and Wayne, were repulsed, and were 
forced to retreat ; and a few days later, Wayne's command was surprised at Paoli, and 
suffered severely. The British pressed on. The news of their advance compelled 
Congress to flee from Philadelphia to Lancaster, and afterwards to York, and on the 
20th of August, Howe, with his forces took possession of the city. 

The English forces were now somewhat divided, some troops having been sent 
against the forts on the Delaware, Cornwallis being in Philadelphia, and the main body 
being at Germantown. Here they were attacked by Washington, but at the Chew 
house, which was occupied by the enemy, he met with stubborn resistance, and was 
repulsed with heavy loss. The British now held Philadelphia, but as the Delaware was 
not open to them, owing to Forts Mifflin and Mercer at its mouth, in October, they 
beseiged these forts, their first attack being repulsed with heavy loss, but their next 
effort, aided by the fleet, being successful, so that their vessels now sailed to 
Philadelphia. After some heavy skirmishing, in which the advantage was with the 
Americans, both armies went into winter quartes, the British in Philadelphia, and 
Washington, with his bare-footed, ragged and suffering soldiers, at Valley Forge. 



ISO 



OUR COUNTRY. 




ATTACK ON CHEW's HOUSE. 



THE REVOLUTION. 151 

While Washington, though defeated, had still been holding the enemy in check in 
Pennsylvania, the Americans had a series of brilliant successes in the north, which aided 
greatly in deciding the fate of the Revolution. Burgoyne, with 7,000 regular troops 
from Europe, and a large body of Indians, and with heavy artillery, invaded northern 
New York from Canada, expecting Clinton from below to join him, so that, holding the 
Hudson river, he might cut off New England from the other colonies. He beseiged 
Ticonderoga, which he took on the 2d of July, and forced Schuyler to abandon 
Fort Edward and fall back to the mouth of the Mohawk, and though Washington sent 
troops, including Morgan and his Virginia riflemen, to aid Schuyler, the whole country 
was alarmed at Burgoyne's rapid success. 

The alarm was most fortunate, for it aroused the people to arms. Burgoyne was 
delayed after his victories over Schuyler, by the latter having torn up bridges and 
obstructed the roads, so that the tide began turning against him. Determined, however, 
to strike right and left, as well as in front, he sent Colonel Bawm with 500 men to 
capture a quantity of stores at Bennington, but the forces sent were signally defeated by 
John Stark with 400 "Green Mountain Boys" and the New Hampshire militia; and a 
fresh body of the British that came up were also defeated by Colonel Warren, the 
English loss being 700 men while the Americans lost less than 100. Burgoyne had also 
sent a body of troops under St. Leger to capture Fort Schuyler (now Rome), and then to 
join him at Albany ; but St. Leger was forced to retreat into Canada, and Burgoyne 
never got to Albany, but remained at Fort Edward, while the American army was at the 
mouth of the Mohawk. 

In August, the American forces were put under the command of Gates, who moved 
to Stillwater, where they were attacked by the British on the 19th of September, and as 
this engagement was not decisive, another took place on the 7th of October, in which the 
Americans had the advantage, and Burgoyne attempted to retreat to Fort Edward. 
The Americans, however, advanced so rapidlj-, that they cut off his retreat, and 
surrounded his forces at Saratoga, and Burgoyne was obliged to surrender his whole 
army, October 17, 1777, over 5.000 men laying down their arms, and being sent as 
prisoners to Boston. 

These battles of New York, which deservedly take rank among the decisive battles 
of the world, led to three important results. The first was a wretched intrigue, known as 
the " Conway Cabal," to supersede Washington and put Gates at the head of the armies. 
While Washington was struggling through the dreary winter at Valley Forge, 
overcoming every kind of obstacle, encouraging and training the army, and devoting 
himself entirely to the welfare of the country, this miserable faction was at work against 
him, and not without hope of success, for, dazzled by the northern victories, Congress 
did not comprehend the great services of Washington, even in defeat. But the whole 
conspiracy came to light and was crushed and ruined by the overwhelming popular 
support of Washington. Gates was sent to the north; Mifflin put on trial for 
mismanagement, and Conway was forced to resign, his place being filled by 
Baron Steuben, who did excellent work in discipline and organization of the troops. 
The second result of Burgoyne's surrender, was the recognition of the colonies by 
France, on the 6th of February, 1778, and a treaty of alliance with that power, brought 
about by Franklin, and ratified by Congress in May of the same year. The third result 
was the offer of Lord North to abandon the right of taxation and recognize Congress, 



i;j 



OUR COUNTRY. 



without yielding independence, while the opposition in Parliament were for making 
peace at all hazards. But the king obstinately opposed the views of the latter, and 
North's proposals, like all the rest of his policy, were too late. 

In November, 1777, Congress adopted 
the "Articles of Confederation," which were 
to form the constitution or general govern- 
ment for the United States, when approved 
by all the States. Before this there had been 
various flags, one in Massachusetts, with a 
field of white with a pine tree on it, and the 
motto "An appeal to Heaven"; another 

7 — ^ ^:^'m^^^i^' 





SURRENDER OF BURGCYNE. 



THE REVOLUTION. 



153 



with a rattlesnake. coiled, and the motto "Don't tread on me" and still another, a union 
flag, with a red field, "The liberties of America" on one side, and "No Popery" on the 
other. But now the Stars and Stripes were adopted, at first with the intention of adding 
a new stripe for each new State, but as that would soon make the flag too large, the 
design as at present was adopted, of thirteen stripes for the original thirteen States, and 
a new star for each State that should be added. 

In 1778, the British made an attempt to capture " jj 

Lafayette, but were foiled. Besides Lafayette, Kosciusko ' , 

and Pulaski, two Polish patriots, and two distinguished 1 

Germans, De Kalb and Steuben, had come over to serve 




WASHINGTON REPROVING LEE AT MONMOUTH. 



- in the American cause, in which as 
able officers they rendered great 
service. In April, a French fleet, 
under Count D'Estaing, left for 
America, bringing 4,000 troops; 
and on its arrival, by Washington's 
advice, it sailed, in July, to Rhode 
Island to attack the British fleet, 
an American force, under Sullivan, 
being sent to co-operate in reducing 



154 OUR COUNTRY. 

Newport. But a storm arising, so damaged the French vessels that they had to put into 
Boston for repairs, and Sulhvan's force had to retire from Rhode Island. In June, the 
British army left Philadelphia for New York, and being followed by Washington, a 
battle took place on the 28th, at Monmouth, in which, owing to the bad conduct of 
Charles Lee, nothing was gained, and Lee was dismissed from the service. 

No account of the battle of Monmouth is complete without the story of 
Molly Pitcher, who, we are told, was a powerful woman dressed in the skirts 
of her own sex and an artilleryman's cloak, cocked hat and feather. Molly's husband 
was a cannoneer who suffered so much from thirst during the fight that his wife was kept 
busy bringing him water from a neighboring spring. While thus engaged, she saw her 
husband fall. The officer ordered the gun removed, because, as he said, he could not fill 
the post with so brave a man as he had lost. Molly's patriotism outweighed her fears, and 
she asked to be allowed to take her husband's place. Her request was granted, and she 
handled the gun with such skill and courage that all who saw her were filled with 
admiration. Washington conferred on lier the rank of lieutenant, and she was granted 
half-pay during life. 

Clinton marched on to New York, and W'ashington following took up position at 
White Plains. In July, WS^oming, in Pennsylvania, was attacked by a force of Tories 
and Indians, the settlers massacred, their houses burned, and their beautiful valley left 
in desolation. In November, Cherry Valley, in New York, experienced the same 
dreadful fate. 

Through the north, the gain on the whole was with the Americans, the British 
having been driven from New England. For two years the middle colonies had suffered 
the horrors of war with but little gain to the English, who, as they had so far failed at 
the north, determined to carry the war to the southern provinces. Late in the fall of 
1778, Colonel Campbell landed in Georgia with 2,000 men, and surprising and capturing 
Robert Howe in command of the American forces, captured Savannah; and General 
Provost, coming with additional forces from Florida, Augusta was also captured, and 
Georgia restored to England. The Tories, who were strong and numerous at the south, 
sided with the English, but quite a body of these renegades marching to unite with the 
British army, were met and totally defeated at Kettle Creek by Colonel Pickens in 1779. 
In March, General Lincoln, who now had command of the southern troops, sent 2,000 
men, under General Ash, against the British in Georgia, but this force was surprised and 
defeated by Provost. In April, Lincoln with 5,000 men marched into Georgia, and a 
conflict took place at Eton's Ferry, but without important results, and the summer heats 
hindered further operations till .September. 

In the north, Clinton remained inactive; Matthews with a small force plundered and 
ravaged a part of Virginia ; and Tryon made a second raid in Connecticut, burning, 
destroying and killing in the villages. Other movements of this sort were checked or 
prevented by Wayne's brilliant assault on Stony Point, capturing the fort and 500 men, 
with cannon and supplies, and destroying the works, thus keeping Clinton quiet and 
watchful for the defense of New York. An attempt was made from Massachusetts 
against a British post on the Penobscot, but it ended in defeat and disaster. To avenge 
the massacres of Wyoming and Cherry Valley, Washington sent General Sullivan with 
a large force to attack the Indians on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and New York, by 
which the savages were everywhere defeated, and forty of their villages were burned. 
In the autumn, both Clinton and W^ashington went into quarters for the winter. 



THE REVOLUTION. 



IS5 



In 1779, the center of the war was at the south. In September, the French fleet, 
under D'Estaing, with 6,000 troops, and witli the co-operation of the American forces 
under Lincohi, assaulted the British works at Savannah, but were repulsed with the loss 
of 1,000 men in killed and wounded. D'Estaing was among the wounded, and Pulaski 
was slain. In December, Clinton, with increased forces attacked Charleston, where 
Lincoln was now in command, and the 

town and army fell into the hands of ,— - 

the British. The city was plundered, 

and both officers and soldiers enriched i^ 

themselves with the spoils. Not only ^^^^ '<C 

■■ ■ r ■ ""' " " %^^' ' ' 











ARNOLD AT NEW LONDON. 



— was confiscation threatened to all 

^ who did not submit, but all who 

would not take up arms for the 

king were treated as rebels, and 

the brutish severity of Clinton in 



iS6 



OUR COUNTRY. 



killing and hanging, and the ill-treatment of the prisoners, favored and carried out by the 
Tories, gave the war in the south a character for barbarity and bitterness elsewhere 
unknown. 

Clinton soon left Cornwallis in command, and returned to New York, where he 
sought by base treachery, through the well known treason of Arnold, to gain the ends 
he failed to secure by force ; but the plot by which he sought to gain West Point and 
the control of the Hudson, miserably failed, and Major Andre, acting as a spy, suffered 
death on the gallows, while the chief traitor and criminal, the disgraced and dishonored 
Arnold, escaped to the enemy, and afterward went to England, where, though rewarded 
for his treason, he was treated with deserved . 

contempt. Before his escape to England, and '' ;i^ ^^ _' ., 

while in the service of the British, he went '^ ^ ,~S?^"^":f^ " 
with a force to attack New London, where, it 
is said that he watched the flames kindled 








Washington's headquarters at newburgh. 



on the dwellings. A woman, roused by 
his villainy, fired a ball from her musket, 
which barely missed its aim, and came 
near ending the career of the traitor 
to his country. 

During the summer of this year, the noted Paul Jones was furnished with a squadron 
by the American commissioners in Paris, and in September he attacked and took two 
British frigates convoying a fleet of merchant vessels, which caused great rejoicing. At 
the close of the year there was much despondency through the country. No important 
victories had been gained. The paper currency, which had been largely issued, had so 
depreciated that it took thirty paper dollars to make one of specie, as it afterward took 
fifty, and even si.xty. To purchase provisions and supples for the army with this 
currency was almost impossible, and Washington had to take supplies for his suff'ering 
soldiers from the surrounding country, and but for the fact that the people were fighting 
for a principle and liberty, the prospects of the country would have been desperate. 



THE REVOLUTION. 



157 




'ifiiiiiffpil^^^ 



')}}$vi:ffy'y" 



EXPLOIT OF ARNOLD. 



158 



OUR COUNTRY. 



At the opening of 1780, everything at the south seemed to be in favor of the British 
forces, but at the darkest hour the tide began to turn, and the patriotism and courage of 
the people rose for the defense of their homes. While Cornwallis was carrying out his 
policy of brutal punishments, a body of patriots, led by Sumter, fell upon a party of 
British raiders, and routed them; they also i^ 

defeated some regiments of English at ^ - 

Hanging Rock. Gates, joining De Kalb on 
Deep river, led their united forces in attacking 







^ t 



$] 



4 



'f «% 



i 




Cornwallis, but 
De Kalb was 
flushed with 



was badly defeated, 
killed. Cornwallis, 
victory, 



and 
now 



expecting 



ATTACK BY THE BRITISH ON THE BLOCK HOUSE AT 
TOM'S RIVER, 1782. 



everywhere to conquer, began his march 
through North Carolina and Virginia. A 
large body of regulars and loyalists, led 
by Ferguson, formed part of his forces, 
but they were attacked by a strong band 
of the "Ninety-six" and backwoodsmen led by Servier and Shelby, who killed or made 
prisoners of the whole body, some 1,100 men, while the patriots lost only twenty. The 
effect of this victory was electrical. The Tory rising was checked. The patriots, led 
by Marion and Sumter, everywhere took up arms, and increased in numbers and 



THE REVOLUTION. 1 59 

activity, and Nathaniel Greene, one of the ablest of the American generals, was sent to 
take the place of Gates in commanding at the south. 

In January, 1781, Greene sent Morgan with a force of 1,000 men to hold the British 
in check in South Carolina. Here he joined battle with Tarleton, the English cavalry 
leader, at Cowpens, January 17th, gaining a signal victory with a loss of but seventy 
men, while the British lost 700, with all their artillery. This was a heavy blow to the 
British, and Cornwallis pressed on, hoping to attack and conquer Greene, and then to 
carry out his intended scheme of ending the war on the Chesapeake. Greene, uniting 
his forces with Morgan, by the middle of March engaged the enemy at Guilford Court 
House, the British losing 500, and the Americans some 300 men; and Cornwallis, 
crippled by this victory, marched on to Virginia. 

Greene now turned back to Carolina, and though not successful in an attack on the 
British under Rawdon, still kept harassing the enemy. Marion and Lee compelled the 
British to leave Camden, and their outlying posts fell, one after another, into the hands 
of Marion and Sumter. After several engagements, which were not of decisive 
importance, the Americans withdrew for the hot months to the hills of the Santee. 
Coming down in September, Greene attacked the British, at first carrying all before him, 
but later suffering defeat, though he lost only 500, while the British loss was over 1500 
men. Though failing several times of complete victory, yet in less than one year, and 
with raw troops and no supplies, he had taken two States from the British and shut them 
up in Charleston. This campaign was a masterwork of skill and persevering fortitude, 
placing him next to Washington as one of the leaders of the Revolution. 

Early in 1781, Cornwallis had moved from the south and taken command of the 
British forces in Virginia, and in June, by direction of Clinton, he took up a strong 
position at Yorktown, where he fortified himself, — a position in which he would be near 
New York, in case that place should be attacked by Washington. 

Washington had intended attacking New York, but with his usual sagacity, he saw 
that a decisive blow might now be struck, as he was able to unite all the allied forces, 
De Grasse arriving in the Chesapeake with 4,000 men ; Barras, with his fleet and 
transports and ordnance, joining them from Newport, and Rochambeau coming from 
Rhode Island. Washington continued to act as if planning only to attack New York, 
and Clinton, supposing this to be his design, arranged his defenses accordingly; but 
suddenly, in September, when everything was ready, Washington appeared before 
Yorktown and began its siege, De Grasse blocking up the James and York rivers 
to prevent the escape of the British by water, as Washington cut off their escape by land. 

The siege was pushed with all possible vigor, a hundred pieces of artillery doing 
terrible execution. The British fell back from their outposts, and in October, two 
advanced redoubts were assailed and carried by the Americans. For three weeks the 
siege continued, the British losing over 500 men during the bombardment. Finding his 
situation hopeless, Cornwallis was obliged to surrender, and on the 19th 7,000 British 
soldiers laid down their arms and gave up Yorktown, with ships, cannon and supplies to 
the conquerors. The news of this great victory filled the land with exultation and joy» 
Patriotic demonstrations abounded everywhere, and Congress appointed the 13th of 
December as a day of public thanksgiving. From the retreat at Lexington, 
April 19, 1775, to the surrender at Yorktown, October 19, 1781, in twenty-four main 



i6o 



OUR COUNTRY. 



engagements, the British losses were not less than 25,000 men, while those of the 
Americans were between 8,000 and 9,000. 

The war had lasted nearly seven years. It had cost Great Britain $500,000,000, and 
the lives of 50>ooo men, besides the loss of the colonies. It was a war of which 
William Pitt, the great English statesman, said, " It was conceived in injustice, nurtured 
in folly, and whose footsteps were marked with slaughter and devastation." It had cost 
the Americans great and widespread suffering and immense expense, but it left them a 
free and independent nation, growing to this day in extent, population and prosperity. 
The country rejoiced in the issue of the war, and felt that the losses and sufferings of the 
people were more than repaid by the results to the nation. 




THE HOUSE WHERE CORNWALLIS SURRENDERED. 



As Congress appointed a day of public thanksgiving after the victory at Yorktown, 
which brought the war to a close, so the King of Great Britain appointed a day of 
thanksgiving after the war was ended and our independence was assured. Proposing the 
appointment of the day, he was asked by one of the bishops why he wished to appoint 
it. " Is it, your Majesty, for the loss of the thousands of your brave soldiers who have 
perished in the conflict?" "No," was the reply, " not for that." "Is it for the vast 
amount of treasures which have been sunk and expended in vain ?" " No, not for that." 
" Is it, then, for the loss of those thirteen prosperous colonies, which might have been the 
glory of the Empire?" "No, not for that." "What, then, is there, your Majesty, for 
which to be thankful ?" " We may well be thankful," was the reply, " that matters are 
not worse!" 







/^///</////// 






THE REVOLUTION. l6l 

The surrender at Yorktown was the real close of the war, and was so recognized 
both in this country and in Europe. It crushed in Europe the last hope of ever 
subjugating the colonies. In the British Parliament resolutions for terminating the 
conflict were introduced, and in the spring of 1782 the British ministry offered to treat 
with the Americans. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, and John Jay 
were sent as commissioners for the United States, and concluded a preliminary treaty of 
peace, which was signed at Paris on the 30th day of November, and the final treaty, the 
"Treaty of Paris," was signed on the 3d day of September, 1783. By this treaty, 
Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the United States, the boundaries of 
which were agreed upon as extending to the great lakes on the north and to the 
Mississippi on the west. On the 3d of November the army was disbanded, the patriot 
soldiers returning with honors to their homes, and by the close of the year the last 
British soldier had left the United States, and the country was rejoicing in peace and 
independence. On the 4th of December, Washington bade farewell to his officers at 
New York. On the 23d, at Annapolis, he resigned his commission to Congress, and 
retired to his farm at Mount Vernon, carrying with him the deep gratitude and love 
of the whole country, as his entire course, before and afterward, has made him the 
admiration of the world. 

The government of the States at the close of the war was not, as now, under a 
constitution binding on all, but only a confederation, or league of the different States, 
the articles of which had been agreed upon by Congress in 1777, and ratified by the 
last of the States in 1781. This confederation, however, was little more than a name. Of 
its Congress, the seat of its power, Jay, one of the wisest of men, said that " They might 
declare war, but had no power to raise money or men to carry it on; might make peace, 
but had no power to see its terms observed ; might form alliances, but without the 
ability to comply with their own stipulations ; might enter into treaties of commerce, but 
without power to enforce them; might borrow money, but without means to repay it ; 
might regulate commerce, but without authority to enforce their ordinances; might 
appoint ministers and other officers of trust, but without power to try or punish them for 
misdemeanors; might resolve, but could not execute, either with despatch or secrecy." 
In a word, he says, " they may consult and deliberate, recommend and make requisitions, 
and only those who please may regard them." Trade was depressed, the currency was 
depreciated, rioting was threatened in many States, and rebellion, under Shay, existed 
in Massachusetts, so that not a few of the most thoughtful men were more apprehensive 
of danger than even in the war itself. 

So great and e.xtended were these troubles and dangers, that the feeling became 
general that a new constitution should be formed, — one that should make the 
United States one great nation, and which, instead of leaving all powers in the hands of 
Congress, should forever separate the three great departments of sovereignty (the 
legislative, the judicial, and the executive), so that each should be a check on the others. 
This principle, so strongly urged by Jay, and advocated in the " Federalist," became the 
corner-stone of the present federal constitution. 

A convention of all the States was called, and met in Philadelphia in May, 1787, and 
Washington was made its presiding officer. After four months' deliberation, they agreed 
upon a constitution which was signed September 17, 1787, and adopted by the people of 
eleven States in 1788. The remaining two States adopted it soon afterward. It went 
into operation March 4, 1789. 



l52 f^^'I^ COUNTRY. 

pi,,.(;,i'ii I 'V^^ iKi ' i i T llll;il^i ^ ll^i•!l:ll l' l■l l Jl l!l l !l''f!'||!'l ,'l: l l ' i ll l l ll llll Jl l ;]iyi ' a'ii,wj^J.ebywMaia!MjiP^ 




WASHINGTON SURRENDEIU.NG HIS COMMISSION 



THE REVOLUTION. 



l6^ 



Its provisions were, in the main, those of the present Constitution of the United 
States; first, the Legislative, or law-making department, called Congress, consisting of 
the Senate, in which each State has two members, and the House of Representatives, in 
which the representation for each State is in joroportion to its population ; second, the 
Executive, consisting of a 

president and vice-president, :„ 

appointed for four years, and 

those appointed by the former ', 

as secretaries, and associated ■ I. ' 

with him ; and third, the 
Judicial department, consisting 
of the supreme court and such 
lower courts as Congress may 
establish. The judges were to 
be appointed by the President, 
with the advice and consent of 





ATTACK ON THE RIOTERS. 



the Senate. Each State 
was left to its own local 
government, while the 
coinage and issuing of 
money, the foreign and 
interstate commerce, 
the relations and 
treaties with foreign 
nations and the Indians, 
and all matters relating to peace or war, 
were left to the general government. 
There is no religious establishment, all 
being free to worship in their own way; 
and the constitution provides that 
there shall be no interference with the 
freedom of opinion or speech, or of 
the press. Under this constitution the 
people of the United States elected 
members of the first National Congress, 
and Washington was chosen the first 
President of the United States. 



PERIOD V. 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



CHAPTER I. 

The New States. 

THE Constitutional Period extends from March 4th, 1789, when the new government 
went into operation to the present time. The Union at first consisted of thirteen 
States, to which Vermont and Maine, the territories of which were then inchided 
in the other States of New England, were afterward added, and of which the brief 
history has already been given. Besides these thirteen, thirty-one other States, including 
Maine and Vermont, have since been added, making in all forty-four States beside the 
territories. An account of the founding and growth of these newer States may now 
be given. 

Kentucky. 

Kentucky was the first of those newer States, and was admitted to the Union in 
1792. It had been partially explored in 1760 by Thomas Walker of Virginia, of which 
State it was made a county in 1776. In 1769, Daniel Boone, a bold and successful 
pioneer and trapper, went from North Carolina into Kentucky, where he had many 
exciting adventures with the Indians, and by whom he was at one time taken captive, 
though he soon escaped. In 1775, he built a fort on the site of what is now 
Boonsborough. This place and other small settlements suffered greatly from the 
Indians, from the bloody wars with whom came the name of the State, which, in the 
Indian language, signifies " the dark and bloody ground." 

After the Revolution large numbers of emigrants, especially from Virginia and New 
England, entered the region, and Louisville, Lexington and other places were settled, 
and the population increased to some thirty thousand. The area of the State is 37,680 
square miles. The country is rolling, the soil for the most part is fertile, giving some of 
the finest agricultural regions in America, and producing all the grains and fruits of the 
warmer temperate regions. Herds of cattle find the best of pasture, and uncounted 
swine fatten in the woods. Coal, lead, iron, salt and beautiful marbles are found. The 
State is well watered, and the hills and valleys are well wooded. From the beginning, 
Kentucky was a slave State. The limestone region abounds in caves, of which the great 

164 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



165 



Mammoth cave, in 
Edmonson county, is 
one of the wonders of 
the world. It has been 
explored for more than 
ten miles. The chief 
industries of the State 
V are agricultural and 
|\ manufacturing. It has 
numerous railroads, 
many public libraries, 
fourteen colleges, eight 
or ten institutions for 
the instruction of 
women, a system of 
common schools, and 
numerous academies, 
seminaries and private 
schools. The popula- 
tion, of the State in 
1880 was 1,648,690, and 
in 1890, 1,854,486. 

Tennessee. 

The next State 
added to the Union 
was Tennessee, which 
was admitted in 1796. 
Its name signifies " the 
river of the great bend." 
Its territory was 
originally a part of 
North Carolina, which 
claimed westward to 
the Mississippi ; and 
in 1777 it was made a 
county of that State. In 1790, having been ceded to the United States, it was organized 
as the Southwest Territory, and so remained till admitted to the Union. At that time it 
had but few settlers, but after the removal of the Indians in 18 19, its growth rapidly 
increased. During the rebellion of 1 861-5, the whole State was a battle-ground, and 
important conflicts occurred at several places — at Nashville, Chickamauga, Lookout 
Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Knoxville, Franklin, and other places; but in April, 1865, 
the legislature of the State ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and 
reorganized the State government, and in the next year it was again received into 
the Union. 

The area of the State is 45,000 square miles. The climate is temperate, and for the 
most part healthful. The soil is extremely fertile, producing all the grains and fruits of 




MAMMOTH CAVE, KENTUCKY. 



1 56 



OUR COUNTRY. 



the temperate regions. The State is richly wooded with pine, oak, hickory, cedar and 
black walnut, and the woods abound in wild game. The State has twentj' colleges, a 
large common school fund, many private schools and academies, asylums for the deaf and 
dumb, and for the insane, numerous railroads, extensive iron mines, a number of caves, 
mostly unexplored, and several important rivers, giving water power to the entire State. 
Until 1783 the educational interests of the State were greatly neglected, but smce that 




LOOK-OUT MOUNTAIN, TENNESSEE. 



time laws have been passed establishing public schools and providing for their support, 
and aid to education has been given from the Peabody fund. In 1880, the population 
was 1,542,359, of which 403.342 were colored; in i8go, 1,763,723. 



Ohio. 



Ohio was the third of the new States, coming into the Union in 1802. The region 
now forming the State was visited by La Salle in 1669-70, but no settlement followed 
his visit for nearly a hundred years. Its name, Ohio, is said to have come from an 
Indian word signifying "the river of blood." The territory was part of the region which 
was ceded to the English by the French in 1763. Virginia claimed all the territory 
ceded by the French under grants from the crown; and Connecticut, New York and 
other colonies also claimed parts of it under conflicting grants. Virginia finally ceded 
her claim to the general government in 1787, and Connecticut obtained recognition of 
her claim in the grant of 3,686,921 acres, which were set off to her on the south side of 
Lake Erie, known as the " Western Reserve " or " New Connecticut," and which laid the 
foundation of the great school fund of that State. 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



167 



In 1787, a company of New England settlers, under the lead of General Rufus 
Putnam was organized in Boston, and in 1788 a company of educated and estimable 
families founded the town of Marietta. A similar settlement was made at Cincinnati in 
the next year, and other settlements soon followed on the Western Reserve. For a time 
the Indians were troublesome, killing and wounding the settlers, but after the victory 
over them at Tippacanoe and Presque Isle, in 1794, emigration rapidly increased. In 




KEO-iMILL tALLb, NEAR tLYKIA, ulllu. 



1800, a territorial government was established, and in 1802 Ohio became one of the 
United States. "No State," said Washington, " was ever settled under such favorable 
auspices, and never were men better fitted to promote the welfare of such a community." 
Ohio contains 39,964 square miles, and no State in the Union has less waste land in 
its borders. The broken hills of the southeast part are noted for their production of coal 
and iron. Every production of the temperate zones may be cultivated in some parts of 



1 68 



OUR COUNTRY. 



the State, and every species of domestic animal is as profitably raised there as anyvhere. 
In the production of wool, flax, butter and cheese it is one of the leading States. The 
fisheries of the State are profitable, and in manufactures the State ranks fourth in tne 
Union. The farms occupy more than four-fifths of the State. Over six hundrea 
companies arc engaged in coal and iron mining, and in the packing business the State is 
surpassed only by Illinois. The State has over sixty different railroads, connecting every 
part of the State with the other States. It has an excellent common school system, six 
colleges, and universities, numerous academies and private schools, public libraries in 
ever part of the State, public charities and asylums of almost every kind, — for the 
insane, the blind, the deaf and dumb, for the orphans of soldiers and sailors, for 
inebriates, and for the reformation of juvenile offenders. The population of the State 
in iSSo was 3,198,062, and in 1890, 3,666,719. 




A MISSISSIPPI RIVER BOAT. 



Louisiana. 



Louisiana was the fourth of the new States, and was admitted to the Union in 18 12. 
The region was visited by De Soto in 1541, and in 1673 by Marquette and his Canadian 
followers, who descended the Mississippi to its mouth, but founded no settlement. In 
1682, La Salle, descending the river, took possession of it in the name of Louis XIV., in 
whose honor he named it Louisiana. But no colony was founded till 1699. u'hen 
Iberville settled in Biloxi, which is now in Alabama, for the name Louisiana was then 
applied almost indefinitely to a widely extended region supposed to extend to the Pacific 
ocean. Bienville, after the death of Iberville, led the colonists to the present site of 
New Orleans, where they made a stand and unfurled the French Hag. In 1712, 
Louis XIV. gave to Anthony Crozat the privilege for fifteen years of exclusive 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



169 



trading in all this vast region. In 1717, the province came into tlie hands of John Law, 
the noted speculator, and in 1723 New Orleans was made the capital of the colony, which 
remained under the French crown till 1762, when it was transferred to Spain, but in 1800 
was restored to France. 

The name Louisiana was originally given to the vast possessions of France in the 
valley of the Mississippi, which were larger than all the original thirteen States of the 
Union. Bonaparte had intended to make this territory a great French colony, and had 




LOADING A COTTON STEAMER ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



even designated one of his generals to be its governor. But in the prospect of war with 
England he sold it to the United States in 1802 for $15,000,000. It embraced at that 
time nearly all the present States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, 
Dakota, most of Kansas and the Indian Territory, part of Colorado, most of Wyoming, 
and the whole of Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. In 1804, the southern part 
of this vast territory was organized as the "Territory of Orleans," and in 1812, with, some 
additions, it was admitted to the Union with its present name. 



170 OUR COUNTRY. 

Louisiana has an area of 41,346 square miles. Its surface is mostly low and level. 
The land along the Mississippi, below New Orleans, and for a hundred and twenty miles 
above, is below the high-water level of the river, and is protected from inundation by 
high embankments, called levees. The river bottoms are exceedingly fertile, the alluvial 
lands are heavily timbered, the forest trees are various, and the State abounds in all 
kinds of tropical fruits. The chief agricultural staples, however, are cotton, sugar, rice 
and corn. The mineral productions of the State are unimportant. The State has 
several rivers. Almost all kinds of wild animals are found in its borders. In foreign 
and domestic commerce, Louisiana ranks next to New York. The State has a large 
school fund, and supports a good system of common schools. It has ten colleges, and 
numerous seminaries and academies, as well as private schools. The State was one of 
the first seceding States and was the scene of several battles, and for three years was 
under military occupation by the United States forces. But in 1868 it was readmitted to 
the Union. The population of the State in 1880 was 939,946, and in 1890, 1,116,828. 



Indiana. 

Indiana, the fifth of the new States, was added to the Union in 18 16. It was 
originally a part of the great Northwestern Territory, but in 1800 was made the 
"Territory of Indiana," and William H. Harrison, who afterward was the ninth President 
of the United States, was its first governor. As early as 1702, settlements were made at 
Vincennes, Congdon and other places by emigrants from Canada and some of the older 
colonies. For several years the Indians were hostile and greatly troublesome, and when 
Harrison was governor, under the lead of the noted Tecumseh, who had unbounded 
influence with his people, they attacked the settlements, but were signally defeated by 
Harrison in a desperate battle.at Tippecanoe in 181 1, after which they sued for peace. 
But in the war of 1812 they again rallied to attack the whites, but were speedily 
conquered and never afterward gave trouble. 

The State has an area of 33,809 square miles. It has no mountains, but is mostly 
level or undulating on its surface. The soil is wonderfully fertile. The table lands of 
the interior are many of them like vast prairies, interspersed with groves of hickory, 
beech, black walnut, ash and other trees. The staple productions are wheat, maize, 
cattle, swine, tobacco, fruits, &c. Coal, iron and valuable building stone are also found. 
The celebrated block coal, and also cannel coal and peat are abundant. 

After coming into the Union the growth of the State, both in population and 
wealth, was rapid. Its constitution was formed with great care and wisdom. The State 
has a large number of public charitable institutions; fourteen colleges, a large school 
fund of about $9,000,000, the school revenues from which and from other sources are, 
annually, between two and three million dollars. The State has several beautiful lakes, 
and the great Wyandotte cave is almost as wonderful as the Mammoth cave of 
Kentucky. As an agricultural State, Indiana stands high. It has numerous and valuable 
manufacturing interests, and there are large and valuable libraries in several parts of the 
State. The population of the State in 1880 was 1,978,301, and in 1890, 2,189,030, 



the constitutional period. 17i 

Mississippi. 

Mississippi, being the sixth of the new States was admitted to the Union in 1817. 
Its name, like that of its great river, signifies " The Father of Waters." The region was 
early visited by De Soto, in 1539; ^Y Joliet and Marquette, in 1673, and by La Salle 
and Tonti, in 1682. But it was not till 1699 that the first attempt to establish a colony 
was made by Iberville. After various changes the region was ceded by France to 
England in 1763, and in 1798 came into possession of the United States. In 1800, it was 
organized as the "Territory of Mississippi"; and in 1817 the western part of this State 
was made a State of the Union. In 1861, the State seceded from the Union, but in 
1869 it assented to the United States Constitution, and again became one of the 
United States. 

The State contains 47,156 square miles; the surface is undulating and the soil 
generally fertile, especially in the river bottoms. The sea coast is sandy, but well 
timbered with live oak, magnolia, and pine trees. The climate is semi-tropical, and the 
chief productions are cotton, sugar, maize, wheat, and the various fruits. In the forests 
are found deer, bear, wolf, wildcat, and wild fowl ; and in the rivers, alligators and fish. 
The State is well provided with railways, and has great wealth and resources. It is well 
watered, and has no mountains. Its mineral deposits are not valuable. Much of the 
State is covered with primitive forests. The great agricultural staples are cotton and 
corn. Excellent pasturage is found in the lowlands and river valleys. The State has a 
number of manufacturing establishments, a system of common schools, many private 
schools and academies, five colleges, and nine collegiate seminaries for the instruction of 
young women. Population in 1880, 1,131,597, and in 1890, 1,284,887. 

Illinois. 

Illinois, which takes its name from an Indian tribe, was the seventh of the new 
States, and was admitted to the Union in 1818. The first white settlements within its 
borders were made in 1682 by French traders and missionaries from Canada. It was 
originally part of the great Northwestern territory, but in 1809 was made a separate 
territory, embracing what is now Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. The Indians were 
for a long time troublesome, which impeded the progress of settlement, but after the 
war of 1812 their hostilities ceased, immigration from the Eastern States set in, and 
important public improvements were made. In 1840 the Mormons settled at Nauvoo, 
intending to make it their great " Jerusalem "; but their doctrines and practices led to 
an uprising of the people, in which Joseph Smith, the founder of the sect, and his 
brother were killed, and the Mormons soon afterward removed to Utah. 

The State has an area of 55,410 square miles. It is generally level, having no 
mountains, and is nearly covered with fertile prairies, while the soil of the river bottoms 
are so rich as to have produced abundant crops for many successive years without 
manuring. The whole State is of limestone formation, with rich deposits of lead and 
coal. As an agricultural State Illinois stands in the first rank, producing in abundance 
all the grains and every kind of fruit. In manufactures it ranks as the sixth of the 
States. Its railroads are more numerous and of greater extent of track than in any 



OUR COUNTRY 




THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



Other State in the 
Union. It has many 
charitable institutions, 
twenty -seven colleges, 
an organized and 
efficient system of 
common schools, a 
school fund of some 
$8,000,000, two law, and 
two medical, and nine 
theological schools, and 
great numbers of 
excellent academies and 
private seminaries or 
schools. In I 8 3 I , 
Chicago was an insig- 
nificant trading station, 
amid wigwams of the 
Indians ; now it is one 
of the largest grain 
ports in the world, and 
the second city in the 
United States, having 
over a million of 
inhabitants. Population 
in 1880, 3,077,877, and 
in 1890, 3,818,536. 



Alabama. 

Alabama, signifying 
" here we rest," so 
named after the river 
of the same name, 
was the eighth of the 
new States, and was 
admitted to the Union 
in 1 8 19. The celebrated 
exploring expedition of De Soto had to fight its way through the Indian tribes 
which at that time inhabited the region, who were less savage and more numerous 
than the Northern tribes, and in their mode of living were in advance of the latter. In 
one instance, it is said, that the house of a chieftain was 120 feet by 40, and included 
small buildings like offices. And on the Savannah river was found a remarkable temple 
100 feet long by 40 wide, and of proportionate height. 

Early in the eighteenth century the French built a fort on Mobile Bay, but the city 
of that name was not commenced till 171 1. In 1763, when all the French possessions 




A NOOK, FOX LAKE, ILLINOIS. 



1/4 



OUR COUNTRY. 



came into possession of the English, Alabama was first with Georgia, and afterward, in 
1802, with the Mississippi territory, but finally, in 1 8 19, it became one of the United 
States. During the war of 1812, the Creek Indians, a powerful tribe, gave the whites a 
great deal of trouble, in one instance taking a fort and killing some four hundred 
persons, but being opposed by a strong force under General Jackson, in less than two 
years they lost 2,000 of their warriors and were glad to make peace. 

Alabama has an area of 50,722 square miles. The country is neither mountainous 
nor level, but rugged and broken, having many picturesque views and wild romantic 
gorges. The State has three large bays and several large rivers. The climate is 
tropical, and the soil fertile, yielding large crops, of cotton. Rice, maize, wool, oats, 
wheat, rye, tobacco and flax are abundantly raised. Wild deer and turkeys, and wild 
geese and ducks frequent the muscle shoals in immense numbers. Trees are numerous, 
and iron, marble and limestone are abundant, and also bituminous coal of a superior 
quality. Education is making satisfactory progress. The State has several colleges, a 
small school fund, normal, agricultural and mechanical schools, several collegiate schools 
for the education of young women, and numerous libraries in the different towns of the 

State. It was one of the first States 
to secede, but in 1866 it adopted 
a new constitution and was received 
back into the Union. Population 
in 1880, 1,262,505, and in 1890, 
1,508,073. 



Missouri. 

Missouri, the ninth of the new 
States admitted to the Union in 
1821, is so called after the river of 
the same name, the word signifying 
the " muddy river." It was formerly 
part of the vast territory of the 
French Louisiana, and was first 
settled in 1755, though before this, 
as early as 1720, attention had been 
drawn to its valuable lead mines, 
which have been so successfully 
worked. St. Louis, which was at 
first a fur trade station, and other 
small settlements grew very slowly 
till Louisiana passed into the 
possession of the United States 
in the time of Jefferson's adminis- 
tration. It was made a territory 
in 1 8 12. 

Applying for admission to the 
Union in 1817, the application led to 




SCENE O.N THE >USS1SSU>1'I K1\EK BELOW ST. 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



1/5 



fierce excitement in Congress and throughout the country ; the question being whether 
it should be a slave State or free. The question was settled by what is known as the 
" Missouri Compromise," which forever excluded slavery from all the country lying 
north of 36° 30", and Missouri came in as a slave State. 

From that time on the growth of the State was rapid, though the people were 
always greatly divided in their views of the slave system. In 1861, at the opening of 
the war of secession, a convention declared for the United States government, while the 
governor, by proclamation, declared the State o,ut of the Union. During the war 
several important battles took place in its borders. And in 1865 a new constitution 
was formed, and in 1869 the State was readmitted to the Union. 

The area of Missouri is 67,380 square miles. Its main rivers are the Mississippi and 
the Missouri. The State has immense coal measures, and vast beds of iron, and also 
valuable "lead deposits. The climate is varied. Much of the land is very fertile, 
producing wheat, maize, hemp, tobacco, and various kinds of fruits. Cotton is grown 
in the southern counties. A large German population has introduced wine-making. 
The chief manufactures are in ironworks, distilleries and breweries, and the State has a 
large and profitable trade supplying the more western regions. The State has an 
excellent school system, and a school fund of over $3,000,000, and its school 
expenditures are over $2,000,000 annually. It has also several normal schools, and 
academies and private schools of a high order, nineteen colleges, four theological 
schools, and two law and five medical schools. Its forests are extensive, and wild 

animals are numerous, and birds of almost 
every kind are found. The commerce of the 
State is extensive, and its mining and 
manufacturing interests are highly valuable. 
Population in 1880, 2,168,389, and in 1890, 
2,677,080. 



Arkansas, 

So called from the river of the same 
name, was the tenth of the new States 
admitted to the Union, which it entered in 
1836. It contains 52,198 square miles, of 
which but a small part is under cultivation. 
Though nominally colonized by the French 
in 1685, it was virtually a wilderness till the 
time of' the Louisiana Purchase by the 
United States, and it was not till 18 19 that 
it became a territory, and not till seventeen 
years later that it was made a State. 

In climate and production the State 
occupies an intermediate position between 
the eastern and western States. It is rich in 
minerals, particularly in manganese and zinc, 




CATHEDRAL SPIRES ON IHE MERRIMAC. 



176 



OUR COUNTRY. 



having also lead ores which are said to contain a large proportion of silver. It also 
contains the principal varieties of coal — anthracite, cannel, and bituminous. Mineral 
and medicinal springs are numerous. There are large forests of cypress, oak, pine, 
cedar, black walnut, maple, and other valuable trees. All the cereals are easily grown. 




HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS. — LOOKING WESTWARD. 



and bring large returns, but cotton raising is the leading business, and cotton is grown 
in every part of the State. Game is abundant and fish are plentiful in the streams and 
bayous. There are four colleges in the State and normal and industrial schools, and the 
State has a small school fund. Population in 1880, 892,525, and in 1890, 1,125,365. 



Michigan. 

Michigan, so called from the Indian word signifying the "lake country,'' was the 
eleventh of the new States, and was admitted to the Union in 1837. The French 
missionaries and fur traders visited Detroit as early as 1610; and the first settlement by 
the Europeans was at the Sault Ste. Marie in 1668. In 1763, this region, with other 
French possessions, fell into the hands of the English. After this the Indian chief 
Pontiac organized a conspiracy to exterminate the whites, and the garrison at Mackinaw 
was butchered, and Detroit for a long time was besieged. It was not till 1796 that the 
United States took actual possession of this region, then part of the Northwestern 
territory. 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. I77 

In 1705, it was made a separate territory. During the war of 1812 it suffered 
greatly from the British and their Indian alHes, and Hull, its governor and commander, 
in a most cowardly manner, surrendered his forces and the whole territory to the 
British, for which he was dismissed from the army, and being tried by a court martial, 
was condemned to death, though the , sentence was remitted; and facts 

afterward came to light which partially, ^^JJ if not wholly, relieved him from blame. 




DETROIT RIVER SCENES. 



But the victories of Perry on Lake Erie, and of Harrison on the land, restored the 
territory to the United States in 1814, and peace was then made with the Indians. 
In 1818, the sale of the public lands brought a large emigration to Michigan, which 
since that time has greatly prospered. 

Michigan has an area of 56,243 square miles. It is comprised in two peninsulas, of 
irregular shape, separated from each other by the strait of Mackinac which connects 



178 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Lakes Michigan and Huron. The upper peninsula, containing about one-third of the 
area of the State, is rugged and mountainous, and is said to be richer in mineral 
productions than any part of the United States. Its northwestern part is celebrated 
for its extensive deposits of iron and copper, the mines of which are some of the most 

productive in the world. 
Michigan alone, chiefly 
from its northern penin- 
sula, produces ores of 
copper and iron of 
greater value than all 
the gold and silver pro- 
ducts of the States of 
the great West. In 1890 
it mined and sent to 
market some 10,000,000 
tons of iron and 200,000 
tons of copper, and its 
mines of both these 
metals are being stead- 
ily and profitably 
developed. 

The commerce that 
passes through the 
great lakes arid waters 
of Michigan is greater 
than all that enters the 
harbor of New York, 
both in the number of 
tons and the value of 
the merchandise. The 
commerce that passes 
annually through the 
canal at the Sault Ste. 
Marie is greater than 
that which passes 
through the Suez canal, 
though for five months 
in the year the former 
is closed by the ice of 
winter. Some fifteen 
of the great Western 
States pour the great 
body of their agricul- 
tural products and of 
their general commerce 
through this canal to 




THE Constitutional period. 



179 



the eastern and foreign markets, while the return commerce of the East comes 
back through the great lakes and through the canal to them. So greatly has 
this commerce increased that the great canal at the Sault, which is 615 feet 
long and 80 feet wide, is not large enough to accommodate it, and the United 

States government 
has entered on the 
work of a new and 
far larger canal, with 
the needful and 
enlarged lockage, the 
excavation for which 
is completed, so that 
the work of construc- 
tion is now under 
way. The walls of 
the new lock are 1,200 
feet long and lOO 
feet wide throughout, 
with 21 feet depth of 
water on the sills and 
a lift for vessels of 
18 feet. The length 
between the gates, 
that is the length 
available for lockage, 
is 800 feet, and in 
the two and a half 
years in which the 
excavations have 
been going on, 
242,000 cubic yards 
of material have 
been dug up and 
removed, of which 
some 100,000 cubic 
yards were of stone. 
The cost of these 
excavations alone 
has been about $230,- 
000. The cost of the 
entire work when 
completed is esti- 
mated at not less 
than $4,585,865, and 
the work itself will 
be the largest of the 




l8o OUR COUNTRY. 

kind in the world. When it is finished vessels loaded to the depth of nineteeir 
feet can pass on their way, which, at a freight of but $i.OO per ton — a low 
estimate — would mean a profit of $1,800.00 on a single down trip of a vessel loaded 
with iron ore. Lake ship building and the carrying industry will have a new life from 
the completion of this great work, and the direct commerce between the great West 
and foreign countries will be greatly increased. 

The southern or lower peninsula is, in almost everything, a contrast to the upper. 
The surface is generally level, and for the most .part fertile. Where vast forests once 
stood their place has been taken by the broad farms of the people and by the flourishing 
cities and villages that are scattered throughout the State. The manufacturing, lumber, 
salt, iron, and railroad interests of the State are extensive, and are highly profitable. 
Some of the largest stove factories of the country, and also large manufactories of freight 
cars for railroads are carried on in the State. 

Throughout its borders there are numerous islands, some of the largest of which are 
favorite summer resorts. Mackinac Island, especially, is noted for its beautiful situation, 
its pure and healthful atmosphere, the many points of interest in and near it, and the 
abundant provision made for the comfort of its summer visitors. It was here that 
Father Marquette, during his early voyages, founded a college for the education of 
Indian youths in 1671. Cadillac, who afterward founded Detroit, built a small fort here 
in 1695. And here it was that the fur trade opened in 1809, when John Jacob Astor 
organized the American Fur Company, with a capital of $2,000,000, so that for forty 
years Mackinac, the great central market for the fur trade, was the gayest and busiest 
place on the lakes, her streets being crowded with people, and her warehouses filled with 
merchandise. Here, too, for a long time, the United States government made its 
annual payments to the Indian tribes, who assembled in thousands to receive their 
promised stipend. 

As an agricultural, and also as a manufacturing State, Michigan stands high. The 
waters of the State are well stocked with fish of various kinds, and the soil produces all 
kinds of grain and fruits. Shipbuilding is carried on extensively and profitably, and in 
no part of the country are there so many facilities for delightful summer excursions as on 
her vast lakes and broad rivers. 

The State has numerous charitable, reformatory and penal institutions, and it takes 
high rank in all that pertains to education. The annual income of its school funds is 
nearly $5,000,000. Its State university is one of the foremost in the country, and there 
are nine other colleges and several professional schools and various seminaries of a high 
order. Population in 1880, 1,636,937; and in 1890, 2,089,792. 



Florida. 

Florida, the twelfth of the new States, said to have been so called from the flowers 
which everywhere cover the country, was purchased from Spain in 1824 for $5,000,000; 
was soon afterward organized as a Territory, with Andrew Jackson as its governor, and 
was admitted to the Union in 1845. Ponce de Leon, in search of the "fountain of 
youth," was the first European to visit it. It was visited in 1528 by De Narvaez 
with a large force, but being strongly resisted by the Indians, no permanent settlement 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



181 



was made. De Soto, and afterward a band of French Huguenots attempted 
settlements, but were unsuccessful, and after various changes it was purchased by the 
United States. 

The State has an area of 60,000 square miles. Much of it is sandy and marshy, 
yielding such productions as cotton, sugar, rice, and various kinds of tropical fruits. 
It has inexhaustible forests of timber, much of it valuable for shipbuilding. Its waters 
swarm with fish, and as a winter resort it is extensively visited by northern people. 





AMELIA ISLAND, FLORIDA. 



For years the State suffered from conflicts with the Indians, but in 1842 their migration 
to reservations took place. The State seceded in 1861, but after the war 
repealed the ordinance of secession, and in 1868 was readmitted to the Union. 
Live oak, hickory and pine trees thrive well. Phosphate in immense quantities has 
recently been discovered. All kinds of grain, cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, rice, 
coffee, and all the fruits of the tropical regions are raised, especially oranges, 
which are sent in abundance to every part of the country. The State has 
a small school fund. Population in 1880 was 269,493, and in 1890, 390,435. 



Texas. 



Texas, the thirteenth of the new States, was admitted to the Union in 1845. 
The region had been explored and a fort erected by La Salle in 1687. In 171 5, 
it was settled by Spaniards, and several missions were established, but the 
"warlike Indians greatly hindered the progress of the country. In 1803, when 



l82 OUR COUNTRY. 

Louisiana was bought by the United States, Texas was claimed by both this 
country and Spain; but when Florida was bought from Spain, in 1819, Texas was given 
up to that country. 

In 1820, Moses Austin, an American, obtained from Mexico the grant of an 
extensive tract of land in Texas, and began a settlement which rapidly increased, but 
in 1830 Mexico forbade further emigration from the United States, because the new 
comers had given trouble to her government. In 1833 a convention of settlers, who 
were now some twenty thousand in number, was called, with the intention of forming 
an independent State, but the attempt was unsuccessful. In 1S35, however, they 
organized a provisional government, and General Sam Houston, who had come to 
Texas, was chosen commander-in-chief. 

Both the character and career of General Houston were so remarkable as to be 
worthy of more particular notice. He was born in Virginia in 1793; enlisted as a 
common soldier in the war of 1812; was chosen ensign, and fought under Jackson with 
such courage and success as to win his warm and lasting friendship; in 1823 was chosen 
a member of Congress, and in 1827 was made governor of Tennessee. In 1829 he 
married the daughter of an ex-governor of the State, and the day after the marriage, to 
the surprise of every one, and for reasons that were never known till after his death, he 
resigned his office as governor of the State, abandoned his wife, his country and 
civilization, and joined himself to the Cherokee Indians beyond the Mississippi, and by 
them was made a chief of their nation. Removing to Texas, where, as stated, he was 
made commander-in-chief, the Mexicans were soon driven out of the province, and in 
consequence the Mexican army of 7,500 men, under Santa Anna, at once invaded the 
country. The Americans at first sustained some severe defeats, and were obliged to 
retreat before the Mexicans for nearly three hundred miles. But suddenly turning on 
■his pursuers, Houston fought the remarkable and decisive battle of San Jacinto, 
April 21, 1836, and at one blow annihilated the Mexican army and achieved the 
independence of Texas. He was elected first president of the new republic, and was 
re-elected in 1841. In 1837, the independence of Texas was acknowledged by the 
United States, as it also was in 1840 by England, France and Belgium. During the 
presidency of Van Buren, Texas applied for admission to the United States, but the 
application, though urgently favored by the South, was strongly opposed by the people 
of the North, because if admitted it would add another slave State to the Union, and so 
it was refused. In 1844, the slavery question was hotly debated, both in Congress and 
throughout the country, and the bill for the admission of Te.xas was passed by 
Congress, was approved by President Tyler March i, 1845, ^rid being also approved by 
Texas, that State, on the 4th of July, 1845, was admitted as one of the United States. 
Its independence was not acknowledged by Mexico, and its admission to the 
United States was soon followed by the war with Mexico, an account of which is 
elsewhere given. 

In 1859, Houston was elected governor of Texas. With the spirit of an 
independent and true patriot, he opposed the secession of the State, but finding 
opposition useless, he retired to private life, and died in 1862. It was not till after his 
death that the secret of his leaving his new wife, resigning his high office as governor of 
Tennessee, and retiring to the wilds of Arkansas and to life with the Indians was made 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



183 



known. It was that he discovered on the part of his wife a prior attachment to 
another, and that she had been coerced or over-persuaded to her marriage with him 
and that with the natural nobility of his nature he had promptly sacrificed himself, his 




SAM UUUSTON. 



social position and all his political prospects, that the woman he truly loved might be 
made happy. His bride, after his departure, as arranged between them, soon obtained 
a divorce on the ground of desertion, and married the man of her choice. 



1 84 OUR COUNTRY. 

Not only did Houston resist secession from tlie first, but it shows his 
true spirit, and belongs to his history and to the history of the country, that on 
the day of Lincoln's inauguration as President, he rode fully armed close beside 
the carriage of the President-elect, to guard him against the possibility of assassination, 
which, even then, had been threatened, as afterward it was consummated. 
The picture of this resolute and stalwart old patriot, then nearly threescore and ten 
years old, guarding the person of Abraham Lincoln, is well worthy of preservation 
as connected with the life of one who added the largest of all the States to 
the Union. 

In 1861, Texas joined in the secession movement and in the war that followed, but 
in 1870 it was re-admitted to the Union, and in 1876 its new constitution was adopted 
by the people. 

Te.xas is far the largest State in the Union, its area being 274,356 square miles, 
nearly six times as large as the great State of New York. It has fine marbles, 
and some deposits of lead and copper, and the coast produces the finest cotton 
and sugar, as the interior does all kinds of grain and abundant pasturage, 
making it one of the finest cattle countries in the world. Vegetation is of the greatest 
variety, and the forests abound in wild animals. The chief exports are cotton, sugar, 
tobacco, cattle and wool. The school fund of the State is about $3,000,000. The State 
has ten colleges and several first-class seminaries, and public and private schools which 
are well sustained. Its deaf and dumb, orphan, blind and lunatic asylums have large 
endowments. The rapid growth and development of the State is largely due to the 
Missouri Pacific Railroad, which, on account of the picturesque scenery through which 
it passes, has become the favorite route to the southwest. Population in 1880, 
1,531,749, and in 1890, 2,222,220. 



Iowa. 

Iowa, so named from an Indian word signifying "the beautiful country," 
was the fourteenth of the new States, and was admitted to the Union in 1846. 
The first white settlement within its borders was in 1788, by Julian Dubuque, 
a Frenchman from Canada, who obtained a grant of a large tract, including 
the city that now bears his name, and also the rich mineral lands around 
it. He built a fort and carried on mining and trading with the Indians till 
his death in 18 10. In 1834, it was part of Michigan, and in 1836, part of 
Wisconsin; but in 1838 it was made a separate Territory, embracing part of 
what is now Minnesota, and all of Dakota; but in 1840, with its boundaries contracted, 
it was made a State. 

The State has an area of 55,045 square miles. It is the most purely agricultural 
of all the States. In proportion to the extent of its territory its grain production is 
said to exceed that of any one of the States of the Union. The beauty of its 
scenery, the richness of its soil, and its naturally good drainage, have attracted 
the best class of farmers and business emigrants from the more eastern States, 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



185 



giving it a population of thrift, energy and intelligence. Its wealth and population 
are distributed with great uniformity. The chief productions are wheat, maize. 




?1 Knxjbttteiv./ 



J 



.\ NOOK o;>. ollUII L.AKh, iu>\i 



tobacco, cattle, horses and hogs. It has little foreign commerce, but trades extensively 
with the interior and with the Atlantic and Gulf towns. Its lead mines are 



l86 OUR COUNTRY. 

valuable, and other metals are found in abundance. The prairies are extensive, and of 
great fertility and beauty. 

Coal, peat and building stone are abundant. The State has numerous 
manufactories. It abounds in fruit trees, and some experiments have been made in 
tea culture. In 1S73 its expenditures for schools were over $4,000,000. It has 
nineteen colleges and several important public institutions sustained by the State, and 
numerous and excellent private schools and academies. Population in 1880, 1,624,611; 
and in 1890, 1,906,729. 

WiSCOiV.SIN. 

Wisconsin, the fifteenth of the new States, was admitted to the Union in 1848. Its 
history dates from 1639, when settlement was made by the French at Green Bay. 
During the next forty years other settlements were made, but conflicts with the Indians 
greatly retarded their progress. Up to 1796 it had been under British control, but it was 
then ceded to the United States and anne.xed to the great Northwestern territory. In 
1836 it was made a distinct territory, covering what is now Iowa, Minnesota, and part of 
Dakota, and so remained until, with these regions set off, it was admitted to the Union 
as a State. Since the Civil War, in which it took an active and efificient part, its 
population and wealth have rapidly increased. 

The State contains 53,924 square miles. The country is a high rolling prairie. The 
lakes and rivers abound in fish ; the minerals found are iron, lead, copper, zinc, plumbago, 
fine marbles, coal, and so forth. In the State are curious earthworks in the form of men 
and animals, and ancient fortifications made by the prehistoric people that have now 
utterly disappeared. The chief manufactures are of iron, lumber, and agricultural 
implements, flour, and so forth. Wheat is one of the chief productions. The State has 
a school fund, nine colleges, several State and numerous town libraries, and is one of the 
most prosperous of the States. Population in 1880, 1,315,493; and in 1890, 1,683,697. 

California. 

California was the sixteenth of the new States, being admitted to the Union in 
1850. The name was at first applied to a peninsula on the west side of New Mexico, 
but was gradually extended as far north as 42", the original California and its northern 
increase being distinguished from each other as the old and the new, or upper and 
lower. It was first explored by the Spaniards, and in 1597 was visited by Sir Francis 
Drake, and though claimed by him for England, it remained a Spanish possession, the 
S[3aniards having numerous missions at or near the coast, including at one time some 
thirty Indian tribes under their care and influence. 

In 1822, when Mexico threw off the Spanish rule and became independent, upper 
California was made a Mexican province, and for some twenty years had but a small 
population, mostly .Spaniards, Mexicans and Indians. When the war between the 
United States and Mexico took place, in 1846, the Americans in California asserted 
their independence of Mexico, and had several encounters with the Mexican authorities, 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



187 




i88 



OUR COUNTRY. 






I t Jr^:f-Z'iS= 



'^ " y \ 








BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 



assuming some three million dollars of 
debts due to Americans. In 1849, 
the people of California adopted a 
constitution forever excluding slavery, 
and the next year the State was 
admitted to the Union. 

Just before the treaty with Mexico 
was concluded, gold was discovered in 
California on a fork of the Sacramento 
river. The water washing through the 
raceway of a sawmill built by a new 
settler, deposited particles of gold. The 
news at once spread throughout the 
land and led to a rush of emigration 
unparalleled in modern times. In 1S49, 
some forty thousand emigrants arrived 
in San Francisco; by 1850, California 
had a population of one hundred 
thousand; and in i860, over three 
hundred thousand. The amount of gold 
taken from the mines was enormous, 
averaging, from 1849 to 1875, some 
fifteen million dollars per year. Up to 
1S60, the great object of the emigrants 
was to make a fortune and return home. 
But after that time the population 
ceased to be exclusively of the mining 
class, but began to develop the other 
rich resources of the State, when it was 
soon found that the agricultural products 
were almost unlimited, the exports of 
wheat and fruit being more than equal 
to the value of the gold taken from the 
mines. Its acgricultural and fruit pro- 
ducts, as well as its business enterprise, 
are more and more becoming prominent. 
The orange orchards have so increased 
and been found so productive** that 
from fifty to seventy carloads of 
oranges in 1890 were daily sent to 
eastern markets, and the prospect is 
that California will become the greatest 
orange producing country in the world. 
All kinds of tropical fruits are easily 
and abundantly cultivated, and extensive 
arrangements have been made for 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



189 












\^ 




YOSEMITE FALLS. 



I go 



OUR COUNTRY. 



the new industries of camphor production and for the manufacture of oHve oil. Table 
fruits in the greatest abundance are raised and sent forth to every part of the land. 
Wine making, sugar beet production, and rich harvests of the various grains, are making 
California as noted for her agricultural and manufacturing prosperity as at first she was 
for her mines of gold. 

As such facts make plain, the later progress of California has been both rapid and 
healthful. Her wonderful scenery, her immense trees of the giant red-wood, her rich 

soil, fine climate and varied 
productions are attractions 
drawing not only settlers for 
business, but thousands of 
visitors for health and 
pleasure. The great trees of 
California are the wonders 
of the world. The most 
celebrated grove of these 
trees is in Mariposa county, 
which is said to contain 
about four hundred of them; 
the largest of which are some 
thirty feet in diameter and 
three hundred feet high. 
There are seven groves of 
these trees in different parts 
of the State. One of the 
trees, which has fallen, is 
estimated to have been four 
hundred and fifty feet high 
and forty feet in diameter. 
The hollow trunk of one of 
them, which is seventy-five 
feet long, is named the 
" Horseback Ride," from the 
fact that one might ride 
through it, upright, on 
horseback. On the stump of 
one of these trees, which has 
been levelled, thirty persons, 
it is said, stood sociably at 
one time, and one tree in 
the Tulare grove is two hundred and seventy-six feet high and one hundred and six 
feet in circumference at the base. In the State there are two thousand si.x hundred and 
seventy-five of these giant trees. 

The scenery in the Yosemite Valley is remarkable for its sublimity. It is formed by 
a gorge in the Sierra Nevadas, which is from eight to ten miles long and about two miles 
wide. The walls are of solid granite, varying in height from two to five thousand feet. 




THREE BROTHEKS, YOSEMITE VALLEY. 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



191 



In some places it is filled with noble oaks, and in others opens out into broad, grassy 
fields. On account of the great depression of the valley the streams from the 
surrounding mountains find their way into it and form marvelous cataracts as they dash 
down its perpendicular sides. In the spring, when the snow melts, these streams are 
innumerable ;, and even in the dry season there is an abundant supply of water in the 
valley, keeping its vegetation fresh and green. 

The Bridal Veil, formed by a stream which enters the Valley from the South, is one 
of the most beautiful water falls in the world. About a mile above the Bridal Veil Falls 
the wall rises to a height of 3,300 feet and is called El Capitan, the Indian name being 
Tu-tock-a-mu-la, which means Great Chief of the Valley. 

On the northern side of the valley, a short distance from the Three Brothers, is the 
great Yosemite Fall, formed by a stream of the same name. It falls, in three great leaps, 
a distance of 2,550 feet. Further on we come to the Yosemite Falls proper, the upper 
part of which is the highest water fall in the world, being sixteen hundred feet in height. 
Below the falls are the two huge mountains of bare granite, called the North and South 
Domes. East of these, in a valley which branches off from the main one, is a beautiful 
sheet of water about a mile in circumference, called Mirror Lake on acccount of its 
wonderful transparency. The descent into the valley is about three miles in length 
and very steep, but the grandeur of the scenery compensates for any difficulties which 

may be met in reaching it. 



Railroads connect Cali- 
fornia with all the other 
States, and her splendid 
steamers reach out to the 
shores of Asia. Her vast 
and growing commerce, her 
mines, her agricultural 
advantages, and her 
wonderful abundance of the 
richest fruits, make sure 
her great prosperity and 
substantial and steady 
growth. She has a State 
university, twelve colleges, 
numerous seminaries of 
various kinds, a noble school 
system on which is expended 
some three million of dollars 
a year. And she is soon 
to have the most richly 
endowed university in the 
world — that established and 
endowed by Mr. Stanford. 
Population in 1880, 864,694, 
and in 1890, 1,204,002. 




MUiROK LAKE AND MOUNT WATKINS. 



192 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Minnesota. 

Minnesota was the seventeentli of tlie new States, and was admitted to the Union in 
1858. Its name signifies the "cloudy water." It was first settled in 1680 by the French, 
who ascended as far as the Falls of St. Anthony. In 1763, the territory was ceded to 
Great Britain. In 1776, the region was explored by Jonathan Carver, from Connecticut, 
and in 1783 it became part of the United States, and was included in the great 
Northwestern Territory. But it was not till 1838 that the Indian title was extingui.shed, 
after which settlements were made at and near Stillwater in 1842. In 1849, '^ was 
organized as a Territory, at which time it was comparatively a wilderness, over which the 
Dakotas or Siou.x Indians roamed. But in 1851, when the lands were ceded to the 




THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY. 



United States, the growth of the Territory in population, wealth and intelligence began. 
At the breaking out of the Rebellion, the Indians attacked the settlements, murdering 
families, burning villages, and killing about one thousand of the inhabitants ; but they 
were speedily and effectually suppressed, and were banished from the State. 

The area of Minnesota is 83,581 square miles. It is abundantly watered by its great 
rivers, which are navigable, and the State abounds in lakes and ponds. It is one of the 
most beautiful, fertile and salubrious of the States, and has extensive and valuable 
forests. The Falls of St. Anthony afford abundant water power which drives the 
machinery of some of the largest flouring mills in the world. The State is rich in 
minerals, including iron, copper, coal, and lead. Gold also has been found. The surface 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



193 



of the country is for the most part undulating, with no mountain ranges. Three-fourths of 
the State are rolling prairies. The northern portion of the State is one of the finest wheat 
producing regions in the world. The forest growths are oak, beech, elm, maple, spruce, 
and pine. More than twenty millions of forest trees have been planted on the prairies. 

The hardier fruits 
grow readily, though 
the season is too 
short for peaches and 
the tenderer kinds of 
grapes. The winters 
are long, but the air is 
dry, the temperature 
even, and the climate 
healthful. Most of 
the early settlers of 
the State were from 
New England, and 
the school system of 
their native States 
they carried with 
them to their new 
home. The school 
fund is between 
three and four million 
dollars. The State 
university has seven 
departments. There 
are in the State 
six colleges, three 
normal schools, three 
theological semi- 
naries, several 
business colleges, 
numerous seminaries 
and academies of 
a high order, and 
various charitable 
and reform institu- 
tions, hospitals, 
asylums, and so forth. 
Population in 1880, 
780,775, and in 1890, 
1,300,017. 







T 

Q 
O 

O 



194 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Oregon. 

Oregon was the eighteenth of the new States, and was admitted to the Union in 
1859. It was originally discovered in 1592 by the Greek navigator De Fuca; and in 
1640 was visited by the Spanish admiral, Fonte, on the ground of whose visit Spain 
claimed it, but in 1790 ceded it to England. In 1788, it was visited by Captains 
Kendrick and Gray, in two trading-ships from Boston. In 1804, it was explored 
by Lewis and Clark, who were sent out by Jefferson, an exploration which led 
John Jacob Astor to plan a settlement on its coast for fur trading. He sent out two 
parties, one by water and another overland, and in 181 1 Astoria was established at the 
mouth of the Columbia river, by the "American Pacific Fur Company," of which 
Mr. A.stor was the director. In 18 12, its property was merged in the Northwest Fur 
Company, and afterward in the Hudson Bay Company, depots for trade being 
established at Fort Vancouver. 




I'UKll.AM), UKECllN, ANU WILLAMETTE RIVER. 



Up to 1834, but few American settlers were in Oregon, but in that year a missionary 
colony, led by Messrs. Whitman and Spaulding, established themselves in the valley of 
the Willamette, and were soon followed by others. A treaty with Great Britain, in 1846, 
settled a disputed boundary, and in 1849, the gold excitement in California added to the 
emigration, which had somewhat increased in 1848, when Congress organized the 
territory. In 1850, Congress passed a law giving land to settlers, and from that time the 
country began to fill up with emigrants. 

Oregon has an area of 95,274 square miles. The Cascade mountains divide the 
State into two unequal parts. The western third has a mild, equable and moist climate, 
with valleys of great fertility, where pines grow to the height of from two hundred to 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. I95 

three hundred feet, and fir trees are from four to ten feet in diameter. East of the 
mountains the cHmate is dry and variable, and the soil less fertile. Gold and silver are 
found in the Cascade mountains, and also copper, platinum, iridium and osmium. Coal 
is found in many parts of the State. The Mammoth Cave of Kentucky has a world-wide 
reputation, and was supposed to be unequalled. But an enormous cavern has been 
discovered in Oregon, about forty miles from the coast, the passages of which have been 
explored for miles underground. The walls of the cave are of great beauty, containing 
semi-transparent stalactites and giant pillars of milk-white and crystallized limestone, 
while within the cave are pools and streams of pure, clear water, and a small stream 
flows from the main opening of the cave, which, on further examination, may be found 
as extensive and remarkable as the great cave of Kentucky. The chief agricultural 
productions are wheat, oats, vegetables and fruits. The forests abound in wild animals, 
and the rivers swarm with salmon. The seashore is three hundred miles in extent, 
and has five bays and good harbors. The ship canal around the Cascade Falls, a 
mile and a half in length, with locks three hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, each 
overcoming a fall of twenty-six feet, is the work of the United States government. 
Above the falls there is steamboat navigation for nearly three hundred miles. More 
than any State except Texas, Oregon is a primary market for live stock. Its timber is 
unsurpassed by that of any State except California. Its wood crop is very valuable, 
its manufactures are numerous, and its various foundries, machine shops, rolling, 
crushing, wood and paper mills, tanneries, canning establishments, etc., show the 
prosperity of the State. Oregon has a good system of common schools, a State 
university, five colleges, and several public institutions of State charity, as for the 
•deaf and dumb, the blind, the insane, etc. Population in 1880, 174,768; and in 
J 890, 312,490. 

Kansas. 

Kansas, the nineteenth of the new States, was admitted to the Union in 1861. It 
was originally part of the "Louisiana Purchase." When, in 1854, it was proposed to 
organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, the advocates of slavery brought into 
Congress a bill known as the " Kansas-Nebraska Bill," which provided that the question 
whether these territories should be slaveholding or free, should be determined by the 
vote of the inhabitants. This was called " popular sovereignty," and the bill was 
nicknamed the " Squatter Sovereignty Bill." It was strongly opposed and denounced 
as a violation of the " Missouri Compromise," but was finally passed, its object being to 
introduce slavery into these new territories, and so prepare the way for making them 
slave States. 

Here v/as the beginning of a series of events which led directly to secession and the 
great rebellion, and to the war between the North and South. The excitement caused 
by this law was intense throughout the country. The slave and free States each sent 
into the new territory emigrants favoring their own views. Large parties of " free soil " 
men poured into Kansas from the North and East, and the friends of slavery came in 
numbers form the South, especially from Missouri, from which came bands of armed 
men, known to the anti-slavery party as " border ruffians." Each side strove for the 
mastery, and for years there were conflicts and bloodshed and lawless violence, till at 



196 



OUR COUNTRY. 





A KANSAS HARVEST SCENE. 

ast, in 1859, th"^ anti-slavery party triumphed, 
and a constitution proliibiting slavery was ratified 
by the people, 10,421 voting for, and 5,530 
against it; and the question being thus settled, 
Kansas came into the Union as a free State. 

From that time on its growth 
and prosperity have been singularly 
rapid. Emigrants have poured in 
from every part of the land. 
Railroads have opened the fertile 
V- prairies for hundreds of miles, and 

the vast 
b u f f alo 
ranges 
have all 
given way 
to corn- 
fields and 
settle- 
ments. 
75 to 1880, 
nearly a hundred thou- 
?«, ;'^ sand were annually added 
' ' to the population, and 
flourishing cities have 
sprung up and increased. 
Kansas is mainly an 
agricultural State. The 
soil is fertile, producing 
all the cereals, and also 
cotton, tobacco, hemp 
and various kinds of 
fruits. The prairies have 
abundance of game ; the 






i 
^ 






THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. I97 

rivers abound in fish. Iron, coal, lignite, marble, kaoline, and salt are among its 
minerals. Manufactures are extensively carried on. The fossils in the west part 
of the State are of great geological interest. The east part of the State is well 
wooded with oak, hickory, black walnut, cotton-wood, elm, ash, and other trees. The 
State has a large school fund, and the value of its school property is some six million 
dollars, while over two million are annually expended for common school education. 
Some of its public institutions are for the insane, the blind, and the deaf and dumb. 
There are two colleges, and many excellent academies and private schools. Population 
in 1S80, 956,090, and in 1890, 1,423,485. 



West Virginia. 

West Virginia, the twentieth of the newly created States, was a part of the old State 
of Virginia, but was separated from it during the War of Secession, and was admitted to 
the Union in 1862. Its early history is that of the State from which it was taken. Its 
area is 23,000 square miles, in 16,000 of which the coal measures are found, containing 
€very quality of cannel, splint, coking and bituminous coal yet discovered. Salt is found 
in springs of great strength and purity. Building limestones, fire-clay, glass-sand, barytes 
and saltpeter abound, and zinc, copper, and lead are found in limited quantities. Half 
the State is covered with forests, giving various kinds of valuable timber. The climate is 
free from extremes of heat and cold, and the air is pure and healthful. The State has 
many kinds of manufactures, and large numbers of mining establishments. Its free 
school system is in efficient operation. It has four colleges, and numerous good 
academies and private schools. Population in 1880, 618,457, 'i"d in 1890, 760,448. 



Nevada. 

Nevada, the twenty-first of the new States, was admitted to the Union in 1864. It 
was a part of the territory acquired from Mexico by the United States, under the treaty 
of Guadaloupe Hidalgo in 1848. Before this it was inhabited only by Indians, there 
being no settlement, and not even a mission within its borders. Its first white 
settlements were made by a few Mormons, when it was a part of what was then 
Utah Territory; but the population was very small till the silver discoveries of 1859, 
which brought in great numbers of settlers and led to the founding of several towns, 
among which Carson and Virginia City took the lead. It was made a Territory in 1861, 
and so remained until it was taken into the Union as a State. 

The area of the State is 104,125 square miles. Its surface is rough and mountainous, 
and its soil for the most part sterile and unfitted for agriculture. Its great wealth is in 
its mines and mineral resources which are various and abundant. Its silver mines. are 
said to be the richest in the world, the great Comstock lode being probably the largest 
deposit of the precious metal ever known. So far back as 1874 there were two hundred 
and forty-three mines in thirteen counties of the State, the yield from which was over 
$35,000,000. The educational interests of the State are not old enough to have made 



198 OUR COUNTRY. 

much progress. But the State has a school system, and a small but increasing school, 
fund. A State university has been organized, and its preparatory departments have been 
opened, and much has been done in the way of academies and private schools. 
Population in 1880, 44,327, and in 1890, 62,266. 



Nebraska. 

Nebraska, so named from an Indian word signifying the "water valley," was the 
twenty-second of the new States, and was admitted to the Union in 1867. For a time 
it formed a part of Missouri territory, but was made a separate territory in 1854. Its 
early history is much the same as that of Kansas. Up to 1854, it had few residents 
except the soldiers at forts, a few missionaries, and the fur traders, but after the building 
of the Pacific railroad the population increased rapidly. 

The State has an area of 75,995 square miles. It is a vast plain, rising gradually 
toward the Rocky Mountains, with numerous prairies, which formerly had immense 
herds of Buffalo, and in which are fertile and well timbered bottom lands. In the 
mountainous parts are mines of lead, gold, silver, copper and cinnabar. The climate is. 
dry and healthful, with abundance of bright, sunny days. The country produces wheat, 
maize, hemp, tobacco and fruits in abundance, while the rolling prairies afford the best of 
pasturage. The manufactures of the State are in their infancy, but are rapidly 
increasing, and the enterprise of the people is seen in car works, foundries, gas works, 
flouring mills, carriage, wagon and implement factories, pork packeries, &c. The State 
has numerous railroads. Its educational interests are well managed. For public school 
interests the government has devoted 2,700,000 acres of land, and 400,000 for a State 
university; and the annual expenditures for public schools are between one and two 
million dollars. The State university has six departments — the college, agriculture, law, 
medicine, and practical science, including mining, engineering and mechanics, and the 
fine arts. Besides this, there are two colleges and many private seminaries. The 
population in 1880 was 452,496, and in 1890, 1,056,792. 



Colorado. 

Colorado, the twenty-third of the new States was admitted to the Union in 1876. 
Its name signifies the " red waters." A portion of its territory was a part of the 
" Louisiana Purchase," and the remainder came from the Mexican territory that was 
ceded to the United States after our war with that country. The region it occupies 
was explored by Pike in 1806, by Colonel Long, of the United States engineers, in 
1820, and by Fremont in 1848, but no permanent settlements were made till the discovery 
of gold on the river Platte in 1858. Then the tide of immigration set in, and settlements 
and towns sprung up as if by magic, and since then its growth has been rapid and 
substantial. 

The State has an area of 106.400 square miles. Its surface is irregular, and broken 
by high mountains and vast intervening valleys, which are spoken of as "parks." The 
famous South Park, for example, covers 1,200 square miles, and has a general elevation 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



199 



of 8,000 feet, rising in places to 10,000. It is surrounded by mountains, and probably 
was once the bed of a vast lake. San Luis, the largest of the so-called parks, is in the 
central part of the State, and is exceedingly fertile, and this, and three other such 
openings or parks, extends as in a line through the middle of the State. All these 
parks are walled by high mountain ridges, are of varied surface, are exceedingly fertile, 
and have dense pine forests, where the elk, bear, deer, and other wild animals are found. 
Here also are mineral springs, and in Middle Park are hot, sulphur and other springs, 
which are remedially valuable. 

The climate of Colorado is remarkably regular and healthful. The cold, except on 
the heights, is seldom severe. The atmosphere is remarkably pure, and the summers are 




BASALTIC PINNACLES, COLORADO RIVER. 



almost rainless. The State is rich in minerals, gold and silver being the most important. 
Coal is found in abundance. Agriculture is advancing rapidly, about half the land, except 
the mountains, being available for cultivation, and producing corn, wheat, rye and oats, 
as well as all kinds of vegetables. The school lands amount to 3,740,000 acres, and in 
time will give ample provision for common schools. There is a State university, with a 
normal department; and there are three colleges, a school of mines, and an institute 
for agricultural instruction. The State is rapidly advancing in enterprise and wealth. 
Population in 1880, 194,327, and in 1890, 410,975. 



200 



OUR COUNTRY. 



WaSHIN'GTON. 



Washington, the twenty-fourth of the new States, 
was admitted to the Union in 1889. The region was 
visited by De Fuca, a Greek navigator, in 1592; b)' 
Spaniards, in 1775; by Cook, in 1778; by Berkley, in 
1787; by Gray, an American, in 1791 ; and by 
Vancouver, in 1792. Lewis and Clark, who were sent 
out by Jefferson, explored the region during his 
administration, and trading-posts were established in it 
by the Hudson Bay Company in 1828. The first 
American settlers entered the territory, which was then 
a part of Oregon, in 1845. I" ^^53 it was made a 
separate Territory. Wars with the Indians in 1S55, 
and again in 1858, retarded immigration, but the 
discovery of gold at Fraser's river in the latter year 
attracted many who became permanent settlers. 




THE CASCADES. 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 20I 

The State has an area of 69,994 square miles. It is divided by the Cascade 
mountains and the Columbia river, into Western Washington, lying west of the 
mountains ; Central Washington, lying between the mountains and the Columbia river ; 
and Eastern Washington, east of the river. Western Washington, comprising two-fifths 
of the State, is a densely timbered region with a few fertile prairies and some rough 
mountain land. The climate is relatively warm in winter and cool in summer, and the 
amount of rainfall is large. The regions about the river valleys in the central part are 
fertile. In the eastern part the summers are warmer and the winters cooler than west of 
the mountains. On the Pacific, the coast line of the State is 180 miles long. Coal, 
both anthracite and bituminous, is found in various parts of the State, and it is said to 
exceed in volume all that is in the Atlantic States combined. The known workable coal 
strata cover an area of over one million acres. An area of 16,000 acres is being worked, 
with an output in 1889 of 1,750,000 tons, and of some 2,250,000 tons in 1891. Sixty 
other veins covering about 30,000 acres are being opened, and will add to the output in 
1892. The coal ranges in character from a true cannel, showing 88 per cent., to a 
semi-anthracite of 91 per cent, carbon. The lignite measures cover 800,000 acres, with 
an output of about 1,000,000 tons in 1890. The gold mines, which at first gave promise 
of extensive production, have for several years been declining. The vegetable and 
animal productions of the State are the same as in Oregon. Fish are very abundant, 
a dozen kinds of salmon filling the rivers, while other fish, such as halibut, cod, herrings 
and sardines, are in great quantities. The water and mountain scenery is perhaps the 
finest on the continent. The chief product is timber. Wheat, barley, oats, and the 
hardier fruits and vegetables are produced in abundance. The schools are supported 
mainly by taxation, which in 1890 was nearly $350,000; and some two million acres of 
land have been set apart as a permanent school fund, the estimated value of which is 
$20,000,000. And for a scientific school, and for charitable, penal, and reformatory 
institutions large appropriations of land have been made by the State. The State 
university and another college are the main institutions for higher education. 
Population in 1880, 75, 116, and in 1890, 349,516. 



North Dakota. 

North Dakota, the twenty-fifth State, was admitted to the Union in 1889. It was 
named from an Indian word which signifies " allied " or " leagued," referring to the 
confederate tribes of the Dakotas or Sioux, who so long roamed over the region. The 
Territory of Dakota was organized in 1861, and it was the northern part of this 
Territory which, in the division of the territory by the Act of Congress, which made 
two States, became North Dakota. The State has an area of 70,715 square miles. It 
is well watered, and includes open, grassy plains and high, rolling prairies. It abounds 
in game as well as furnishes valuable furs. The land is fertile and well timbered, and is 
rich in coal and other minerals. In the basin of the Red River of the North there are 
vast plains covered with grass, affording pasturage in summer and feed in the winter in 
abundance. In the Black Hills are extensive forests of pine and other valuable timber. 
A century ago these regions were the resort of fur traders, trappers and hunters, but 
the immigration of great numbers of settlers is rapidly changing the condition of the 



202 OUR COUNTRY. 

State. There are three colleges, and several excellent academies, as well as private 
schools, in the State. The population of the State in 1880 was 36,906, and in 1890, 
182,425. 

South Dakota. 

South Dakota, the twenty-sixth of the new States, was admitted to the Union in 
1889. Like North Dakota, it was made by dividing the Territory of the same name. 
What has been said of Northern Dakota applies in most respects to this StatC; as both 
are in the same region, and both formed the Territory. The area of the State is 77,650 
square miles, and this State has been more rapidly settled than North Dakota, and is 
rapidly filling up with emigrants from other States, whose enterprise and numbers 
give promise of steady and substantial growth. The Indian reservations in both 
States take up some 60,000 square miles. Educational interests are receiving attention. 
Population in 1880, 98,282; and in 1S90, 327,848. 



Montana. 

Montana, the twenty-seventh of the new States, was admitted to the Union in 1889. 
As a Territory it was formed, in 1864, from parts of Dakota and Idalio. Its area is 
143,776 square miles, but a small part of which is under cultivation. It has great 
mineral wealth, including gold, silver, copper, galena, coal, and some kinds of precious 
stones. Its surface is rough and mountainous, the main range of the Rocky Mountains 
entering the west part of the State from the north, and passing through toward the 
west boundary. The mountainous regions constitute two-fifths of the State, and in 
some parts rise 11,000 feet above the level of the sea, and are covered with 
perpetual snow. 

The State has extensive prairies and bottom lands, which are rich in soil, but to a 
great extent are not cultivated or tilled. The climate is subject to great variations. 
Wild animals are numerous. Fish of every kind abound in the streams. In the large 
towns manufactures are rapidly increasing. The State has comparatively few schools. 
It is exceedingly well watered, and well adapted for grazing, and when the Indian 
reservations which take up so large a portion of the State are open to settlers, the white 
population will greatly increase. 

The Yellowstone region was formerly a great resort of buffaloes, of which it is said 
that in 1880 five hundred thousand were seen in a single day, though now they have 
almost entirely disappeared. The great " National Park," with its varied and wonderful 
scenery, is partly in this State, and contains numerous hot and mineral springs. The 
geysers have their name from an Icelandic word signifying "to burst forth violently," 
as is expressed by the English word "gush," and some of these eruptive springs, as they 
suddenly send up their powerful jets, make a great noise, and fill the air with clouds of 
steam. These geysers are hundreds — and, counting the smaller ones, thousands, — in 
number, and some of them throw up immense columns of water to the height of from 
20 to 200, and in one case, 250 feet. The giant geyser is one of the most remarkable. 
At intervals it throws up a column of water some five feet in diameter to the height of 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



203 



130 feet, continuing its active period for about an hour and a half, and then subsiding. 
The schools of Montana, both public and private, are as yet few in number, but are 
steadily increasing and improving. Population in 1880, 39,459, and in 1S90, 131,769. 



Wyoming. 



Wyoming, the twenty-eighth of the new States, was admitted to the Union in 1890. 
As a Territory it was organized in 1868, out of parts of Dakota, Idaho and Utah. The 
area of the State is 97,883 square miles. It is very mountainous, and is elevated from 

2,500 to 3,000 
feet above the 
sea level. It has 
several impor- 
tant rivers. 
The soil of the 
valleys is mod- 
erately fertile, 
and there is 
good pasturage. 
The State is 
rich in minerals, 
including iron, 
copper, lead, 
coal, silver and 
gold. The most 
notable feature 
of the State is 
the valley of the 
Yellowstone 
river, in the 
northwest cor- 
ner of which 
3,525 square 
miles have been 
reserved as a 
grand National 
Park. The 
region was first 
explored by 
parties from the 
United States 
in 1870-71. It 
is one of the 
most wonderful 

MOUNT STEPHENSON, NEAR THE SUMMIT OF THE ROCKIES. aud rCmarkablC 




204 



OUR COUNTRY, 



regions on the face of the earth. Here and in Montana are found the largest and most 
numerous geysers or spouting, intermittent, thermal springs in the world, being 
thousands in number, and some fifty of them throwing up water 200 or more feet high, 
the temperature of the water ranging from 160 to 200 degrees of heat. The 
" Tower Falls." another of the wonders of this region, have a sheer descent of 400 feet, 
and the " Grand Canon," another curiosity, is a fearful abyss, 3,000 feet in perpendicular 
depth, and from its bottom the stars are visible at mid-day. Gold, iron deposits and 
coal beds are found in the State, and there are profitable mines of copper, lead and 
gypsum. The growth of Wyoming has been slow, as the Indians have been 




VIEW IN GRAND CASoN. 



troublesome, and the proportion of land adapted to agriculture is comparatively 
small. Mining interests, however, are steadily increasing. Educational progress 
is encouraging. Women can vote in the State and sit on juries, and are eligible to public 
office. Population in 1880, 20,789, and in 1890, 60,589. 



Idaho. 

Idaho, the twenty-ninth of the new States was admitted to the Union in 1S90. In 
1863 it was organized as a Territory, with an area three times as large as its present 
limit, having then within its boundaries a large part of Wyoming and the whole of 
Montana. It was first explored by Lewis and Clark in the early part of the eighteenth 
century, before which time, it is said, no white man had ever set foot within its borders. 
After that it was traversed only by hunters and trappers till 1852, when the discovery of 
gold near the northern boundary drew great numbers to the region. 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



205 



ill 



ii' 



Silil(ilJi'i«hK.hi'il||liMi 




BBAVr!?*':iii"i.ii''K''''! 



2o6 



OUR COUNTRY. 



The area of the State is 86,294 square miles. The surface is generally elevated, 
about one third of it being suitable for agriculture. The mountain, timber and mineral 
lands cover more than half, while the lakes and streams take about a tenth of the State. 
Gold, silver and lead are found near the sources of most of the rivers, the region on the 
Boise river proving one of the richest gold fields ever known. Up to 1874 the product 
of the precious metals was nearly $80,000,000. The Custer mine is said to be 
remarkable for exhibiting the greatest mass of ore on the surface that has ever 
been discovered. 

The climate of Idaho is varied, though generally delightful during the summer and 
autumn. In the mountains the winters are extremely cold and the snows heavy, but in 
the lower valleys and plains cattle sometimes winter without shelter. In the western 
part of the State the temperature is like that of central Illinois, and in the eastern part 
much like that of northern New England. The forests of Idaho are confined to the 
northwestern parts and to the sheltered valleys of the mountains. Noble pines, cedars 
and spruces arc found, and the red cedars are of larger size and in greater abundance 
than in any part of the world. The long-leaved pine, which is abundant, attains a height 
of from 120 to 170 feet, and a diameter of from four to seven feet, and serves for saw 
logs to the very top. 

Agriculture is as yet but little developed, and grazing lands are not extensive. The 
great fish of the State is the salmon which comes up from the Columbia river in immense 
numbers to spawn in the Salmon and other rivers, where it attains great size, sometimes 
being from forty to fifty pounds in weight. The red fish, one of the rarest and most 
beautiful of all fishes, and said by Humboldt to be found in only five lakes in the world, 
are found in the lakes of the Saw-tooth mountains. Some interesting fossils have been 
found in the State. The remains of the mastodon, and of the elephant and tapir families 
have been found, and also of bears, monkeys, crocodiles, alligators, and other .saurians, 
and of genera allied to the horse. The schools and school interests of Idaho, like those 
of all sparsely settled communities with greatly mi.xed populations, are but little 
developed, but are slowly improving. A branch of the Yellowstone Park is in progress 
in Idaho. Population in iSSo, 32,610; and in i8go, 84,229. 




CHAPTER II. 



The Territories. 

TERRITORIES, in the United States, are those public lands set off by Congress, 
and still under its direct authority, which have the capacity of becoming States 
when so authorized by Congress. Each Territory has a governor, a judiciary 
system and proper administrative officers appointed by the President, and also a 
territorial legislature of limited powers, the action of which is subject to Congressional 
revision. In addition to the forty-four States of the Union, there are four Territories 
included in the property and under the jurisdiction of the United States, or seven, if we 
include the District of Columbia, the Indian Territory and Oklahoma, and also Alaska, 
the territorial government of which is not yet fully organized. 

New Mexico. 

New Mexico was formerly a State of Mexico, but coming into possession of the 
United States by treaty and purchase, it was organized as a Territory in 1850. Three 
years later what was called the " Gadsden Purchase," which was also obtained from 
Mexico was annexed to it, the Territory then containing the whole of what is now 
Arizona and parts of Colorado and Nevada, which were afterward set ofT from it. The 
capital, Santa Fe, is, next to St. Augustine, the oldest town in the United States. 

The area of the Territory is 121,201 square miles. Two great chains of the Rocky 
Mountains cross the eastern part of the Territory from north to south, while in the 
western part the mountain ranges rise to an elevation of 12,000 feet. The climate is 
cold in the elevated regions, and hot in the plains. Heavy rains fall in July and August, 
but the rest of the year is dry. The productions are wheat, maize, oats, tobacco, and 
various fruits ; and pasturage is abundant. There are in the Territory numerous mines 
of gold, silver, copper, iron, and salt. The Indian population has been very large, but is 
decreasing, several of the tribes having been removed to reservations. Stock-raising 
and wool-growing have for many years been important occupations. Manufactures are 
slowly increasing. Schools are but few in number; not till 181 2 was there any 
established system of common school instruction, and then comparatively few of the 
schools were above the grade of primary teaching. Population in 1880, 119,565, and in 
1890, 144,862. 

Utah. 

Utah was originally part of Upper California, and was acquired by the United 
States from Mexico in 1848, at the close of the war with that country. Its name is from 
an Indian word signifying "dwellers in the mountains," as the region is traversed by 
high mountain ranges, rising thousands of feet in elevation. The Mormons, who had 

207 



20S 



OUR COUNTRY, 




THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



209 



been driven from Illinois and Missouri, emigrated to Utah in 1847-8, and established 
themselves in what was then an almost unknown region, which they called Deseret. 
Under the superintendence and leadership of their high priest, Brigham Young, 
Salt Lake City was founded, and in 1850 a territorial government was formed, of which 
Young was appointed governor. In 1857, however, he set at defiance the authority of 
the Federal government, and from that time to this there has always been more or less 
difficulty in controlling the Territory. 

The Mormon system started from what its founders pretended was a revelation 
set forth in some golden plates which they said were dug up near Palmyra, in 
the State of New York, and from which they pretended to have copied the book of 




WnUK CLIFFS, UTAH. 



Mormon. But for the doctrine of polygamy, which is not taught in the Mormon bible 
or in the book of Mormon, the leaders claimed they had special revelations and 
directions, as they seem conveniently to have had for other of their views and customs. 

In 1862, the Mormons formed a State constitution, and demanded admission to the 
Union as the State of Deseret. This was refused, as it has been ever since, on account 
of the system and practice of polygamy, which the Mormons claim is enjoined by their 
religion. Severe laws have been passed against this system by Congress; and in all 
probability Utah will never be admitted as a State till the system is entirely abandoned. 

Most of the Mormons are from the lower classes in England and the north of 
Europe, but there is a large and growing class of the "gentiles" or non-Mormon people, 

14 



210 



OUR COUNTRY. 



who are steadily gaining in numbers and power, and it is to be hoped that through their 
influence and the legislation of Congress, the objectionable features of Mormonism may- 
be brought to an end. 

Utah has an area of 84,476 square miles. It is an immense basin 4,0(X) to S,ooo feet 
above the level of the sea, surrounded by mountains which, at some points, rise to the 
height of from 8,000 to 13,000 feet. Several of the rivers of the Territory flow into the 
Great Salt Lake on its northern part, and in the Territory there are numerous lakes and 
also warm and salt springs. Iron is abundant, and gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc and marble 
of various kinds have been found. The climate is bleak, the soil, as a wdiole, is barren, 




COLORED CLIFFS NEAR KANAB, UTAH. 



with spots of great fertility; and where irrigated, as it is in some sections, it is 
very productive. The chief crops are wheat, oats, barley, maize, flax, hemp, and fruits; 
and cattle and sheep are abundant. The chief manufactures are those required in a new- 
country, such as farming implements, furniture, carriages, woolen goods, leather, 
steam-engines, cutlery, machinery, etc. The great Mormon temple is a vast structure, 
and many of the public buildings are expensive. Besides the common schools, there are 
many private schools and academies. The university at Salt Lake City has medical, 
collegiate, normal and preparatory departments. The constitution grants the right of 
suffrage to women. Population in 1880, 143.963. and in 1 890, 205,498. 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



211 




MARBLE CANoN OF THE COLORADO. 



212 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Arizona, 

Arizona was formerly a part of New Mexico, including what was known as the 
"Gadsden Purchase," but was made a separate Territory in 1863. It is a rough and 
elevated country of broad plateaus some seven thousand or more feet above the level 
of the sea, and the peaks of some of its mountains are from twelve thousand to fourteen 
thousand feet high. Its grazing lands cover three-fourths of the Territory, but its chief 
wealth is in its mineral resources, which are of great value and are being rapidly 
developed. The rivers, flowing southward, have worn enormous gullies or canons in 
their course. The great cafion of the Colorado is the largest in the world, being four 
hundred miles long, with walls perpendicular, and from fifteen hundred to six thousand 
feet high, while at the bottom of this vast chasm the river plunges and roars in 
cataracts and whirlpools that make extended navigation impossible, and render even 
exploration difficult and dangerous. The illustration on page 213 gives a view of 
Moqui, one of the stone cities of Arizona, inhabited by the Pueblos or Moquis Indians. 
These towns are numerous along the Colorado river. They are built upon commanding 
eminences, and can be reached only through narrow defiles in the rocks on which they 

|'™Wnii!P!i| stand. Many of them are without 
?! *^- ^^' population, and are but deserted relics 
^•jvj of a once numerous people — perhaps 
'*-^i of a civilization. 
^ f "(^ The Territory has an area of 

1 14,000 square miles. In the northern 
part the climate is cold, but in the 
southern part it is delightful. Of the 
Indians, who are numerous, some five 
thousand are settled on reservations, 
engaged in agriculture and cattle- 
raising. In the northern part are 
the Pueblo or "Town Indians," 
supposed to be the remains of the 
once powerful Aztecs, or of even some 
earlier race. They are a quiet, 
inoffensive people, dwelling in rude 
stone houses, and having many of the 
-irts of civilaiztion. Educational 
interests are but little developed. 
Population in 1880, 40,404, and in 
1890, 59,691. 

The Indian Territory. 

The Indian Territory is not like 

the regularly organized Territories 

which have been described, but is 

the region set apart as the home 

ci.iFK DWELLINGS, ARIZONA. of the civlUzed, Or partly civilized 




THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



213 



remnants of the once powerful tribes of Indians, who, from time to time, have been 
removed by the government from different parts of the Union, and are now upon 
separate reservations, under forms of government established by themselves, living 




DISTANT VIEW OF MOiJUI, WITH SHEEr-PENS IN THE FOREGROUND. 

at peace with each other and with the United States. In 1830, Congress passed 
an Act setting apart all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi, 
and not within Missouri, Louisiana or Arkansas, to be known as "the Indian country." 



214 OUR COUNTRY. 

Parts of it have since been organized into new States and Territories, and to the 
remainder has been added a strip of land from Texas, the whole making the 
" Indian Territory." 

The area of the Territory is 74,127 square miles, of which somewhat more than 
two-thirds are assigned to the Indians, and on which are twenty different reservations 
occupied by as many tribes of Indians. These reservations occupy some 47,000 square 
miles of the Territory, and some 22,000 square miles are as yet unassigned. Agents 
representing the United States live among the various tribes, having an oversight of 
their affairs and interests, and protecting them from encroachments by the whites. The 
occupations of the Indians are agricultural. There are over two hundred common 
schools and ten high schools in the Territory. Nearly all the tribes have abandoned 
their pagan religion. The traffic in ardent spirits is absolutely prohibited, and no other 
Territory of the United States has as many houses of worship, or so many Sunday 
schools, or so good attendance at both in proportion to its population, as are found in 
this. The population, does not appear in the census of 1880, but it is reported to be 
about 75,000, exclusive of whites. 

Oklahoma. 

Oklahoma is the last organized of the Territories. It consists of the southern part 
of the Indian Territory, the Cherokee country, and the small region which has long 
been known as "No Man's Land." It was made a Territory in 1890, and has an area 
of 39,030 square miles. As to soil, climate and productions, it is like the southern part 
of the Indian Territory, having rich lands and giving fine openings for settlers, who 
rushed in in large numbers as soon as the region was open for occupation. It is still, as 
with all new Territories when first open for immigrants, in comparatively an unorganized 
state as to society and public works, but is rapidly taking shape and gives promise of 
great progress and prosperity. Population in 1890, 60,834. 



Alasica. 

Alaska, the word signifying " the great land," is the name given to the whole of 
what was Russian America in the northwest corner of North America, including all the 
islands in the Aleutian Archipelago, except Copper and Behring Islands on the coast of 
Kamtchatka. Its area, including that of the islands, is 580,170 square miles in extent. 
It was purchased from Russia by the United States, in 1867, for $7,200,000. 

Such is the statement generally received, but it is said to have been publicly stated 
by General Sherman that the real history of its possession by the United States is as 
follows: In the War of Secession, when there was apparently danger that the 
Southern Confederacy might be recognized by England or some other European power, 
several Russian war vessels made their appearance on our coast. These vessels, it is 
said, had been privately engaged by our government to aid in protecting our ports if it 
was found that protection was needed. Alaska, it was claimed, was a burden on Russia, 
protected and cared for at great expense and giving no satisfactory returns, so that 
Russia would willingly have given it to our government without compensation. And 
the payment apparently made for its purchase, was, it is said, actual payment for the 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



215 



presence of the Russian vessels, which, if need be, would have been actively engaged 
on the side of our nation, while it was understood by the public that the price paid was 
only for Alaska, the whole of which might have been obtained at a far lower rate, if not 
gratuitously, from Russia, to which it was a useless region. 

Such is the story as publicly given by General Sherman, who must have been 
informed as to the secret history of the war and its connected public movements, a 
story which, it is believed, has never been denied. But whether it be correct or not, 
Alaska at the time mentioned came into possession of the United States. The region 
was long the headquarters of the Russian American Fur Company; and its fisheries and 
fur trade were and are its leading industries, being unsurpassed in value in any part of 
the world. The capture of seals is especially important, 160,000 of them having been. 




SITKA, ALASKA. 



for years, annually taken in Alaskan waters. They have been killed in such numbers as 
to endanger their entire destruction, and the American and British governments have 
now united in staying their slaughter, till by arbitration, the extent of control over the 
seal producing regions can be settled to the satisfaction of both nations. 

Besides the seals, the principle fur-bearing animals of Alaska are the fox, martin, 
mink, otter, lynx, black bear, and wolverine. There are also the coarser furs of the 
reindeer, mountain sheep, goat, wolf, muskrat, and ermine. There are also large 
deposits of coal, copper, sulphur, amber, gold and silver, the last two being of great 



2l6 



OUR COUNTRY. 



value. The lumber of Alaska is varied, and almost unlimited in extent. The forests of 
yellow cedar, white pine, hemlock, and balsam fir are enough to supply the world. 

The climate, of course, varies with the vast extent of the country, in some places 
being that of the extreme Arctic regions, while the influence of the great 
Gulf Stream of the Pacific makes the southern coast and the adjacent islands as 
mild in winter as in New York. The Yukon river is a wonderful stream, 

two thousand miles long, 
and navigable for fifteen 
hundred miles from its 
mouth, and a thousand 
miles above its mouth it is, 
in places, twenty miles wide, 
including the intervening 
islands. Polygamy and 
sorcery are common with 
the natives, as well as 
many of the gross and cruel 
practices of heathenism. 
They believe in the transmi- 
gration of souls from one 
body to another, but not to 
an animal; and the wish is 
often expressed that in the 
next change they may be 
born into this or that power- 
ful family. If slaves are 
sacrificed at their burial, it is 
supposed to relieve their 
owners from work in the next 
world. Strong efforts are 
being made to civilize and 
christianize the people. 

The census of 1 890 
reports the population of 
Alaska to be 31,000, of 
whom 4,800 are whites. 
The native population is 
several thousand less than 
it was ten years ago, the 
agent saying: "They have 
learned the use of intoxi- 
cating liquor from the 
whalers, and it is killing 
SCENES IN THE INLAND PASSAGE. them off rapidly." 




THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. , 21 J 



The District of Columbia. 



The District of Columbia is neitlier a State nor a Territory, but has an organization 
peculiar to itself. It is a small territory between Maryland and Virginia, or rather 
bounded on three sides by Maryland, and on the west by the Potomac river, selected by 
Congress in 1790 as the place where the national capital of the United States should be 
permanently located. 

The old Continental Congress had, at various times, met in different places: in 
1774-6, at Philadelphia; in 1776, at Baltimore; in 1777, at Philadelphia; and in the 
same year at York, and then at Lancaster; in 1778-83, at Philadelphia; in 1783, at 
Princeton; and in the same year at Annapolis; in 1784, at Trenton; and in 1785-89, at 
New York. These various changes were caused by the exigencies of the war. But the 
first Congress of the United States under the Constitution was held in New York in 1790, 
the general government having been organized in that city, March 4, 1789; and there 
Congress continued to hold its sessions till 1791, after which the "Federal Town" 
was to be Philadelphia till the year 1800. 

The question of the location of the capital had been somewhat discussed in the 
convention at Philadelphia in 1787, but it was not till the summer of 1790 that it was 
finally decided at the meeting of Congress in New York. The discussion of the 
question was long and earnest. New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Harrisburg, 
Trenton, and several other places urged their claims to be made the capital city, and for 
a time it seemed almost impossible to make a selection. Maryland and Virginia had 
offered the territory needful for the Federal District, and after many votes had been 
taken, Congress, in July, gave to President Washington the sole power of selecting a 
"Federal Territory," not exceeding ten miles square, on the Potomac, to be "the 
permanent seat of the government of the United States." 

The final adoption of the present site was brought about by a stroke of policy, or a 
legislative bargain, " which," says another, " in the mildest slang 'of to-day would be 
called a log-rolling job." Hamilton's bill for the assumption by the general government 
of the debts incurred by the States during the Revolutionary War, amounting to 
some $20,000,000, had been defeated in Congress, and if not reconsidered and passed, it 
was feared that the Eastern or creditor States might secede from the Union, and it was 
through the influence of Jefferson and Hamilton that the bill was reconsidered and 
passed, the Southern States, which had strongly opposed it, agreeing to its passage on 
condition the seat of government was fixed where it now is, on the Potomac. 

The territory, ten miles square, on both sides of the Potomac, was ceded by 
Maryland and Virginia, on condition that Congress, or the United States authorities, 
should have exclusive control over it forever. Maryland gave sixty-four square miles 
and Virginia thirty-six; but in 1846, the Virginia portion was returned to that State, 
no part of the government buildings having been erected on that side of the river and 
no public use made of that part of the grant. 

The government title to the territory thus taken was perfected, suitable buildings 
for the time were erected, and in December, 1800, the capital was fixed at the new 
federal city which was named "Washington." The formal transfer of the government 
from Philadelphia to Washington took place in October. And that it was indeed a day 



2l8 



OUR COUNTRY. 




THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



219 



of small things is evident when, as we read, " a single packet sloop brought all the 
office furniture of the departments, beside seven large and five small boxes, containing 
all the archives of the government." The officials numbered fifty-four persons, 
including President Adams, the secretaries and all the clerks of the departments. The 
crudeness and 
discomfort of 
Washington seem 
to have dissatisfied 
and even disgusted 
them all. Mrs. 
Adams spoke of it 
as " a wilderness 
city," and Secre- 
tary Wolcott, in a 
letter to his wife, 
said : " There are 
but few houses, 
and most of them 
are small and 
miserable huts. 
The people are 
poor, and as far 
as I can judge, 
live like fishes, by 
eating each other." 
A member of Con- 
gress, in a letter 
at the time, says: 
"Pennsylvania 
avenue is a deep 
morass covered 
with elder bushes, 
which are cut 
through to the 
president's house." 
There seemed to 
be only two 
really comfortable 
habitations within 
the bounds of 
the city, and 
the roads in 
every direction 
were muddy 
and unimproved. 
Newspapers and 




220 OUR COUNTRY. 

satirists everywhere cracked their jokes at the infant city. The capitol was called 
" the palace in the wilderness," and Pennsylvania avenue, " the great Serbonian 
Bog ; " Georgetown was said to be " a city of houses without streets," and Washington 
" a city of streets without houses." And when there was some talk of removing 
the capital to another place a clever Scotch artist made a good deal of sport 
by the caricature of a congressman, with the capitol strapped on his back, ready to 
start as soon as it was decided where to go. 

For years afterward Washington was but the skeleton of a town, and from 
its greatly e.xtended but incomplete plans, it was nicknamed "the city of 
magnificent distances." The appearance of the city, even so late as 1810, with the 
comparatively small capitol building, may be seen in the engraving (p. 219), though at 
that time there were no sidewalks, and the broad avenues were but thoroughfares 
cut through the woods or farms of the region then almost unoccupied. Of the 
contrast to the present appearance some idea may be formed from the second 
engraving, on page 221. 

During the war of 1812, the British fleet, sailing up Chesapeake Bay, landed some 
4,500 men, who began their march for Washington. At Bladensburg, five miles from 
the city, they were opposed by a large body of raw militia and a few hundred seamen, 
but overcoming these forces, they continued their march, and on the 24th of August, 
1814, they reached the city, and soon entered the hall of the House of Representatives, 
where the soldiers formed around the Speaker's chair, in which Cockburn, seating 
himself, derisively called the assemblage to order, crying out, " Shall this harbor of 
Yankee democracy be burned? All in favor of it, say Ayel " As all at once cried out 
in the affirmative, he gave orders to fire the building, which soon was in flames. 
Leaving the fire burning furiously, the soldiers marched on to set fire to other public 
edifices, but a severe rain setting in, extinguished the flames on the capitol, so that 
though the inside was burned the walls were left standing. Afterwards the building 
was restored, or rather rebuilt, and greatly enlarged, and in 1827 was reported to 
Congress as finished, covering then about one and a half acres, and being 352 feet long, 
and 145 feet high to the top of the dome, its construction having cost $2,433,814. 
In 1851, and several following years, a new dome and other improvements were 
added at a cost of $1,250,000, making the total expenditures on the building nearly 
$13,000,000. It now covers an area of over three and a half acres, and the grounds 
around it comprise forty-two acres. Its total length is 751 feet, and its greatest 
breadth 324 feet. Its basement is devoted to the committee-rooms of Congress, the 
law library, and the document and folding-rooms, the Congressional post ofifice, and 
the Senate and House restaurants and offices. The principal story contains the 
Rotunda, the Statuary Hall, the Supreme Court room, the library of Congress and 
the halls of both Houses of Congress, with various rooms for the members and 
public officers. 

The drenching rain, which extinguished the fire at the capitol, saved the 
White House and other public buildings from total destruction, and the enemy left the 
city late that night, fearing an attack under cover of the darkness; and taking to their 
fleet, which had come as far as Alexandria, sailed down the Potomac. The damage 
done by their invasion was estimated at $1,000,000. Seventy-five Americans were killed 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 

mnip]iiipi|i||i|nmi|ii|i[imiiimiiiimnnpirimpmiiiiiiiimiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiin^ 



221 




m 
X 



OUR COUNTRY. 




Bi«ii!iiiiiriij.ii*'a;i 



or wounded in the 
conflict at Bladensburg, 
and the British suffered 
the loss of several 
hundred men. 

At this period 
Washington was com- 
paratively a scattered 
village in the midst of 
farms or plantations. 
Nearly all the domestic 
and field labor, in and 
around it, was performed 
by slaves, who were 
generally treated with 
kindness and well 
clothed and fed, and 
many of whom had neat 
and comfortable homes. 
Oti many plantations 
they were allowed good 
pay for extra labor, and 
so not a few of them 
saved money enough by 
industry to purchase 
their freedom. The 
chief culture was that 
of tobacco, which made 
many of the planters 
very wealthy. The 
tobacco was largely 
shipped to Europe, and 
it was generally brought 
=?«5.^ to the place of shipment 
r-^-: in hogsheads. Through 
these hogsheads a hole 
was bored and an axle 
was placed in it from 
end to end. To this 
axle a shaft was 
attached, like the shaft 
:i^j_;a or thills of a cart, and 
horses or mules were 
hitched to it. The 



-THE BARTHOLDI FOUNTAIN IN THE BOTANICAL GARDEN. 2. — STATUE OF 
GENERAL SCOTT AT THE SOLDIERS' HOME. 3. — MILLS' STATUE OF GENERAL 
WASHINGTON. 4. — MARBLE GROUP ON THE PORTICO OP THE CAPITOL. llOgshcad WaS tllCH 
5. — STATUE OF GENERAL GREENE. 6. — MILLS' STATUE OF GENERAL JACKSON. draWn aloilg the StreCtS, 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



223 



up hill and down, rolling and bumping over stones and rough places till it reached the 
place of shipment. The total annual cost of supporting a slave was about $98, but 
the annual earnings of his labor amounted to hundreds of dollars. 

From 1825 to 1829, during the administration of 
John Quincy Adams, the population of Washington 
was about 20,000, but it was a sprawling, slow-going, 
uninteresting city, with very few signs of promise; 
and even so late as 1840, the French minister said: 
"It is neither a city, nor a village, nor the country, 
but a building-yard, in a desolate spot, where living is 
unbearable." " There were no public schools," says 
another, "and stray cows and pigs were the statuary 
that adorned the squares and parks. 

In 1870, however, Washington was roused from 
its lethargy by an earnest effort which was made to 
remove the capital to St. Louis, which offered to 
expend millions to make a Federal city worthy of the 
name. At this juncture an energetic and strong 
man, Alexander R. Shepperd, came into leadership, 
and soon turned the tide that was setting for removal. 
He was favored by 
the strong friendship 
of President Grant, 
and was noted for 
his immense energy 
and invincible resolu- 
tion. His aim was to 
make Washington 
the cleanest and 
most beautiful city 
in America, if not in 
the world, and to 
accomplish this end 
the old municipal 
government was 
abolished, and in its 
place a territorial 
government with a 
legislature and an 
active board of public 
works was estab- 
lished. Eighty miles 
of the half -made 
streets and avenues 
were improved, and 

near y all ot the more i._the naval statue, or monument of peace. 2.— greenough's statue of 
settled streets were Washington. 3. — brown's sttaue of general scott. 




224 



OUR COUNTRY. 



paved with wood or concrete. A general and costly system of sewers was begun. 

Scores of new parks were graded, fenced, and set with trees and fountains. From 

$ I 5 ,000,000 t o 
$20,000,000 were 
expended in the 
great undertaking. 
Over a thousand new 
buildings were 
erected. In ten years 
the city was trans- 
formed. Fifty 
thousand shade trees 
were planted. The 
streets were covered 
with smooth and 
almost noiseless 
pavements. Squares 
and circles were 
adorned with statues 
of heroes and distin- 
guished men. Market 
buildings, splendid 
school houses, and 
elegant churches 
were erected, and 
water works and 
sewers were con- 
structed on a scale 
unsurpassed in the 
country. Washing- 
ton was gradually 
made one of the most 
healthful, attractive, 
and elegant cities in 
the country. In 
18S0, the population 
was 147,624, and in 
1890, 229,796; and 
beside this there is a 
floating population 
in the winter 
months which is esti- 
mated at 50,000, com- 
posed of congressmen 
and their families, 
people of means, 

I. STATUE OF GENERAL RAWLINS. 2. — WAKD's STAlUt llh UKNERAL 1 HoMAS. StudcUtS aud prO- 

3._STATUE OF EMANCIPATION. 4.— STATUE OF GENERAL MCPHERSON. , •_,,„] ^npn frnm 

5. —STATUE OF ADMIRAL FARRAGUT. ICsSlOnai men IFOIU 




THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



225 




WASHINGTON MONUMENT. 



various parts of the land, so that 
year by year the capital is rapidly 
increasing in prosperity and importance. 
The public buildings of the city 
are numerous, and some of them 
imposing and elegant. The number 
of persons employed in them in the 
public service is some 20,000, and as the 
country grows this number is steadily 
increasing. Tourists from every part of 
the world, in great numbers, visit the 
city, while from all parts of the land 
hundreds of persons arrive for business 
with the public departments. The 
extensive libraries and scientific 
collections attract many students and 
those engaged in special researches. 
The vast collections of natural history 
in the Smithsonian Institute and the 
National Museum, the great law library 
of the government, and the libraries of 
the Patent office, and of the State, 
War, and Navy departments are 
largely sought and used by professional 
persons from every part of the States. 
The statues and monuments in 
\'arious parts of the city add greatly to 
its attractiveness. 

The Washington Monument has 
been called " the world's greatest 
cenotaph," and has cost about 
$1,200,000. It rises 572 feet above the 
surrounding ground, and at its base is 
55 feet and at its top about 30 feet 
quare. In the interior lining of the 
• belisk are numerous blocks of stone 
[iresented by the cities and States of 
the Union, by foreign countries, and 
by various societies and associations. 
The ascent to the top is made by an 
levator and also by a spiral staircase, 
and the interior of the shaft is lighted 
by electricity, as the only openings, 
except the entrance doors, are the 
small windows at the top. The shaft 
is the largest structure of the kind in the 
world, and is higher than any of the 



15 



226 



OUR COUNTRY. 



cathedral spires or monuments of Europe or the East. The prospect from the 
top is subHme beyond description. 

The Executive Mansion, commonly known as the " White House," is another of 
the noted buildings of Washington. It stands in the center of an enclosed plat of 
twenty acres, which slopes gradually to the river bank, giving a far-reaching view 
over the Potomac and the blue hills of Virginia. It is built of free-stone painted white. 
After the burning of the building by the British, in 1814, the house was reconstructed, 
and was re-opened in 1818, more beautiful than before it was set on fire by the 
enemy. The building itself may be seen in the engraving. 




THE WHITE HOUSE, FROM 11 -. N ^'. 1 v AM A AVKM'E. 

Some of the other noted' buildings of Washington are the Smithsonian Institute 
the buildings of the various departments of the government, the Naval Observatory, 
the Soldiers* Home, the Army and Medical Museum, the Hospital for the Insane, the 
Howard and Columbian Universities, the Corcoran Gallery, the Deaf and Dumb 
Institute, and so forth. 

Other objects of interest, as associated with the city and the history of the country, 
are Mount Vernon, so long the home of Washington, and Arlington, formerly belonging 
to Daniei Parke Custis, whose widow became the wife of Washington, and which 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



227 



through her descended to General Robert E. Lee, and after the War of Secession 
was bought by the United States government for $150,000. It consists of 1,160 acres, 
two hundred acres of which are now the National Military Cemetery, where are buried 
16.264 soldiers who lost their lives in the War of Secession, 11,915 of whom were 
identified, and 4,349 were unknown. In it is also a vault containing the remains of 
2,211 unknown Union soldiers, gathered from various battle-fields after the war was 
over. Mount Vernon is also seen in the distance, standing on the brow of a sloping 
hill, a hundred and twenty-four feet above the river, which at this point is two 
miles in width. In Washington's time the estate comprised 8,000 acres, but 
since his death portions of it have from time to time been sold by the heirs, till now 
only 200 acres with the house have been retained. It is now in the charge of an 




MOUNT VERNON, FROM THE POTOMAC RIVER. 



association, and is visited by thousands of people every year. In 1876, the 
Centennial year, it was visited by 45,000 persons. 

Until 1 87 1, the District was governed directly by Congress, but since that time, by 
an Act of Congress, it has had the right of self-government as an organized Territory, 
having a governor and secretary appointed by the President and Senate, and also a 
Council and House of Delegates, and the right to send a representative to Congress. 
The city has numerous hospitals, and charitable houses for various classes of the 
unfortunate and needy; for orphans, sailors, soldiers, the insane, for the freedmen, etc. 
In the city are several colleges or universities, and excellent schools of every kind. 

Beside the city of Washington, Georgetown is a large city within the limits of the 
District and separated from it only by a bridge, over which street cars and travel in 
general are passing continually. 



228 



OUR COUNTRY. 



V///A i^^f^f^^^z-X, ■- ■>■ 




W 



WASHINGTON S RECEPTION AT TRENTON. 



CHAPTER III. 



ADMINISTRATIONS BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. 



Washington's Administration— 1789 to 1797. 

INDEPENDENCE having been declared and acknowledged, the Constitution adopted, 
and the government under it established, Washington was chosen President, and 
John Adams, Vice-President. The inauguration took place in New York, 
April 30, 1789. As Washington was on his way to that city, which was then the seat of 
•government he was everywhere met and greeted by crowds of admiring people. At 
Trenton, for example, where he had fought several battles, a triumphal arch, supported 
by thirteen pillars, was thrown over a bridge he was to pass, and on it was the inscription, 
"The defender of the mothers will be the protector of the daughters." Beneath the 
arch stood a party of young girls with baskets of flowers, who, as he drew near, sang: 

Welcome, mighty chief, once more ; 
Welcome to this grateful shore- 
Now no mercenary foe 
Aims again the fatal blow, — 
Aims at thee the fatal blow. 

Virgins fair, and matrons grave, 
Those thy conquering arm did save. 
Raise for thee triumphal bowers, 
Strew for thee the way with flowers, — 
Strew our hero's way with flowers. 

And as Washington rode on, they strewed the flowers in profusion in his way. All 
the march to New York was a triumphal procession. The inauguration was on the 
balcony of " Federal Hall." 

The government, as we have seen, consisted of three branches- — the Legislative, to 
make laws; the Executive, to see them executed, and the Judicial, to interpret them. 
The Executive began with four departments, that of the State having charge of foreign 
affairs; that of the Treasury; that of War; and that of Law or Justice. The officers of 
the first three were called Secretaries, and the last, Attorney-General. All were 
appointed by the President as members of his Cabinet, and had to be confirmed by the 
Senate. Other departments have since been added, viz.: the Secretary of the Navy, the 
Postmaster-General, and the Secretary of the Interior. Besides these there are several 
" Commissioners," as of Patents, the Land Office, Pensions, Agriculture, Education, 
Labor, the Indians, Railroads, and the Civil Service. 

22g 



2T,0 



OUR COUNTRY. 



In the first year of Washington's administration, Benjamin FrankHn, one of the 
grandest men ever born in this country, died in Philadelphia, aged eighty-four years. 

Congress was organized on the 4th of March. At its first session it submitted 

to the States several 
amendments to the 
Constitution, ten of 
which were ratified in 
1 79 1. To provide a 
revenue for the support 
of the government a 
tonnage tax was laid 
on merchantships, and 
duties were levied oa 
certain imported goods,, 
making what is known 
as the "Tariff." 
Provision was also made 
for the public debt 
incurred by the Revo- 
lutionary War, which 
was now some $75,000,- 
000. Congreiss also 
established the Bank 
of the United States, 
chartered for twenty 
years, with a capital 
of $10,000,000, and 
located at Philadelphia, 
with branches in 
other places. The 
presidential term had 
been fixed by the 
Constitution at four 
Washington was a second time elected. 




GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



1793- 



years, and the first term expired in 
with John Adams as Vice-President. 

At this time, the French Revolution had run its course of violence, the king had 
been executed, a republic had been established, and war had followed between France 
and England. Genet, sent by the French government, had demanded that the United 
States should form an alliance with France against Great Britain, but Washington had 
already issued his famous proclamation of non-interference with European politics and 
quarrels, in which he was supported by Hamilton and the Federalists, while the 
Republicans, led by Jefferson and others, were in favor of war to aid France in her 
conflict with England. Genet, emboldened by the Republican feeling, impudently 
threatened to appeal to the people against Washington, and confident of success had 
already fitted out privateers to prey upon English commerce. But Washington was 
firm, and at once demanded the recall of Genet, who was accordingly called back to- 
France. 





J > 






THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



231 



The feelings of the people against Great Britain were still bitter, not merely from 
memories of the Revolution, but because England had not yet surrendered some 
Western forts as agreed by the treaty of 1783, and had allowed the capture of neutral 
vessels, and also had impressed into British service seamen known to be Americans. To 
preserve peace and a friendly policy, John Jay, the chief justice, was sent by Washington 
to England, where he concluded a treaty, which, though strongly objected to by the 
Republicans, was ratified in 1795, and doubtless through the wise policy of Washington, 
saved the Nation from the evils of another war. 

During this administration, Jefferson and Hamilton, leaders of the two great 
political parties, so differed that both resigned office as Secretaries of State and of the 




franklin's grave at philadf.lphia. 



Treasury. There had been troubles, too, in the West with the Indians, who, however, 
were completely routed by General Wayne, in 1794, and forced to relinquish their 
claims to Ohio. In the same year, what is known as the " Whiskey Rebellion," occurred 
in Western Pennsylvania, the people rising to resist the tax imposed by Congress on 
distilled spirits, a rebellion which was broken up by troops sent by Washington. In 
1795, a treaty with Spain settled the boundaries between the Spanish possessions and 
Louisiana and Florida, and secured to the United States the free navigation of the 
Mississippi ; a large sum was paid for the liberation of persons who had been taken 
captive by the Bey of Algiers; and the work of preparing a navy was begun. In 1791, 
Vermont, and in 1792, Kentucky, were admitted to the Union, and the "Territory south 



232 



OUR COUNTRY. 



of the Ohio " was organized. At the close of his second administration, which ended 
March 4th, 1797, Washington, who had refused re-election, pubhshed his "Farewell 
Address," a paper eminently marked by wise counsel and devoted patriotism, and then 
retired to his estates at Mt. Vernon. 

Two candidates were now brought forward for the ofifice of president. John Adams 
by the Federal party, and Thomas Jefferson by the Republicans. Adams received the 
highest number of votes, thus making him president, and Jefferson the next highest 
number, making him vice-president. 

As Washington was the first one to hold the high office of president of the United 
States, there were several matters of interest as to his important position and his 




VIEW OF Washington's house, mt. vernon. 



relations to the public; but the first question that arose was as to what should be the 
official title of the president. Washington himself was in favor of the words, " His 
High Mightiness," the title of the Stadtholder of Holland, which at that time was a 
republic. Other titles were suggested and discussed, but finally it was agreed that he 
should be addressed as " His Excellency." In going to the sessions of Congress he was 
driven in a State coach, the body of which was a hemisphere, cream-colored and 
ornamented with festoons of flowers supported by figures of cupid. On great occasions 
the coach was drawn by six horses ; at ordinary times by four, and on Sundays by two. 
The driver and postillions were in liveries of scarlet and white. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



233 



The levees or public receptions of the president were held once every two weeks, in 
his own house, on the afternoon of the day, when, with the members of his cabinet and 
other leading men, he received visitors. At these levees he was usually dressed in black 
velvet, with light-colored waistcoat, yellow gloves, and silver buckles at his knees and on 
his shoes. His hair was powdered and gathered in a silk bag behind. He held his 
cocked hat in his hand, and wore a long sword, the scabbard of which was of polished 
white leather. He never shook hands with those who called, but bowed to each one and 
had brief conversation with them. 

Mrs. Washington, who was always addressed as Lady Washington, also had her 
levees, which were held in the evening, and at which all appeared in full dress. The 






President was celebrated by dinners and 
« v, all the cities and large towns of the 



birthday of the 
public meetings in 
nation, as the 
birthdays of the 
kings of England 
had been in 
colonial days. 

Such formality 
and care for 
costume and 
ceremony was not 
confined to the 
President, but 
extended to those 
who were promin- 
ent in public ofifice. 
The judges of th^ 
supreme court in |;J 
winter wore robes 
of scarlet faced 
with velvet, and in 
summer had black 

silk robes, such as are worn by the judges of that 
court at the present day. Clergymen wore wigs 
with gowns and bands in the pulpit, and cocked 
hats in the street. Ladies wore elegant silks and brocades, 
and had their hair dressed with powder and pomatum, and 
often built up high above the head, and on great occasions the hair-dressers were 
kept incessantly busy from early morning till night. The clothes of gentlemen were 
of various colors and of rich materials, such as are now used only by ladies ; and 
the wig, the white stock, the satin embroidered vest, the black satin breeches, the white 
silk stockings, and a fine broadcloth or velvet coat was the dress when going to 
entertainments. At home, a velvet or linen cap took- the place of the wig, while a 
dressing gown lined with silk took the place of the coat, and the feet were supplied with 
slippers of some fancy color. 




234 



OUR COUNTRY. 



The ceremony and formality of Washington's receptions, as well as his style of 
living, were thought by many to give dignity and importance to the office of president, 
but others disliked and opposed it as ostentatious and savoring too much of the customs 

ofmon.archy. Less 
ceremony and plainer 
tastes gradually pre- 
vailed, so that when 
Jefferson was President 
he went to the other 
extreme, often walking 
to the doors of Con- 
gress, or riding by 
himself without attend- 
ants and tying his horse 
to a post, while he 
was attending to public 
business. 




Adams' Administra- 
tion — 1797 TO 1 80 1. 

The second President 
of the United States, 
John Adams, of Massa- 
chusetts, was inaugu- 
rated March 4, 1797, 
with Thomas Jefferson, 
of Virginia, as Vice- 
President. Mr. Adams 
was born in October, 
1735, in that part of 
JOHN ADAMS. Braintrcc which is now 

Quincy, Massachusetts. 
He was graduated at Harvard College, and taking up the profession of law, soon rose 
to a distinguished position in the State and Nation. He was a prominent member of 
several of the colonial Congresses, was employed in several important negotiations with 
European powers, and especially in the commission for settling the conditions of peace 
with England in 1782. In 1785, he went to London as the first ambassador from the 
United States; and when George HL expressed his pleasure in receiving an ambjissador 
who had no prejudices in favor of France, his prompt reply was "I have no prejudices 
except in favor of my native land." 

In all internal affairs the United States were now prospering, and the 
agricultural and commercial wealth of the country had greatly increased. But 
there was trouble with France, and that nation being dissatisfied with our treaty 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



235 



with England, had given orders to prey on our commerce, and had ordered 
Pinckney, our minister, to leave the country. War being thus threatened, Congress 
was called together, and John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry were appointed envoys 
to France, that, with Pinckney, they might attempt a reconciliation with that 
country. To these gentlemen it was intimated by the French agents, that unless they 
paid large sums of money they would not be allowed even a favorable hearing. This is 
said to have brought forth from Pinckney the memorable expression, "Millions for 
defense, but not one cent for tribute," an expression which was re-echoed through the 
United States. Marshall and Pinckney were ordered to leave France, and Gerry 
was soon recalled. Measures were at once taken to prepare for war. The navy 
and army were increased, and Washington was appointed commander-in-chief 
of the latter, with 
Hamilton as active 
commander, and the 
conflict beginning, 
Commodore Trux- 
ton, with the ship 
Constellation, in 1799 
gained one or two 
victories over French 
men-of-war. But 
though hostilities 
had actually begun 
on the ocean, change 
of circumstances in 
France prevented 
further conflict. In 
1799 Bonaparte over- 
threw the existing 
government in 
France, and taking 
control into his own 
hands, made peace 
with the United 
States in 1800. 

During 1798 the 
disturbed state of foreign affairs had led to great excitement and heated discussion 
throughout the country and what were known as the "Alien and Sedition Laws" 
were passed by Congress. The first increased to fourteen years the period of 
naturalization for foreigners, and empowered the President to send out of the 
United States any foreigner whose presence he thought dangerous to the public welfare. 
The other punished with a fine and imprisonment the uttering of "any false, scandalous 
or malicious statements" concerning the President or Congress. These laws were 
bitterly denounced, and though the first was never carried into effect, they made the 
administration unpopular, and prepared the way for the defeat of the Federal party in 
the next national election. 




MARTHA WASHINGTON S BED-CHAMBER. 



236 



OUR COUNTRY. 



On the 14th of December, 1799, Washington died, the sad tidings of his death 
fining the land with sorrow, and wakening afresh the universal admiration felt for his 
character. In the next year the capital was removed to the city of Washington, and 
the Northwestern Territory was divided into the Territories of Ohio and Indiana, of the 
latter of which General William H. Harrison was made governor. At the presidential 
election in the fall of the year, the candidates of the Federal party were John Adams 
and Charles C. Pinckney, and those of the Republicans, Thomas Jefferson and 
Aaron Burr, the two last named being elected. As the law then was, it devolved on 
the House of Representatives to decide, in view of the votes given, which of the two 




Washington's grave, mount vernon. 



should be the chief magistrate, and on the thirty-sixth ballot Jefferson was made 
President, and Burr Vice-President. The votes in all the previous balloting had been 
forty-six for Jefferson and forty-six for Burr. Then Bayard, of the Federal party, 
proposed to Burr that he would vote for and make him President if he would agree to 
carry out certain views and measures of the Federal party, which Burr positively refused 
to do. The same, or a similar offer was then made to Jefferson, and he assented to 
the proposal. The Bayard vote was then cast for him, and made him President, giving 
the Vice-Presidency to Burr. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



237 



Jefferson's Administration — 1801 to 1809. 

The third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, was 
inaugurated March 4, 1801, with Aaron Burr, of New York, as Vice-President. 
Mr. Jefferson was born in Albermarle county, Virginia, April 2, 1743. After studying at 

the college of William 
and Mary, he entered 
on the practice of law, 
and early took an active 
and prominent part in 
the measures that led 
to the calling of the 
Continental Congress, 
of which he was a 
member, and for which 
he drew up the 
celebrated Declaration 
of Independence. He 
was chosen governor of 
Virginia in 1779, and in 
1784 was made minister 
to France, and he was 
also Secretary of State 
under Washington. 

The bills to establish 
religious freedom, to 
abolish entails, and to 
put an end to the right 
of primogeniture, were 
some of the reforms he 
effected in Virginia, and 
to him we owe the 
s y s t em of decimal 
coinage and currency. 
He also advocated the 
abolition of slavery after the year 1 800, but to this Congress would not agree. He 
was chiefly instrumental in establishing the college out of which grew the University of 
Virginia, in which he took so much pride that he wrote as a part of his own epitaph, 
" Father of the University of Virginia." 

Elected by the Republican or Democratic party, Jefferson acted in public on the 
principles of democratic simplicity. He rode to the capital on horseback, and delivered 
in person his first inaugural address to Congress, though afterward his messages were 
sent by a secretary, which has since continued to be the custom. He also began the 
custom of giving the most important offices to men of his own party, thus laying the 
foundation of the political maxim of a later day, that " to the victors belong the spoils." 




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



238 OUR COUNTRY. 

The "Alien and Sedition" laws had expired by their own limitation, and Jefferson 
granted pardon to all who had been imjjrisoned under the latter, and Congress, at his 
suggestion, abolished internal taxes, reduced both the army and navy, and introduced 
other economical reforms. But the most important event of his administration was the 
" Louisiana purchase," which added to the United States a territory larger than all the 
thirteen original States, and opened to navigation and commerce the great water ways of 
the Mississippi, from its mouth to its distant sources and tributaries, extending to the 
great regions of the North and West. This vast region, including all from the west of 
the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, and north to the British possessions, had been 
ceded by Spain to France, and Bonaparte had intended making it an immense French 
colony, and had even appointed a governor to carry out his plans of French sovereignty. 
But needing funds for his expected \\ar with Great Britain, he offered to sell the entire 
territory for some $15,000,000, and his offer was accepted, and the purchase was made 
in 1803. 

The purchase at the time was unauthorized, but was afterward ratified by Congress. 
It is not strange that Livingston, who, with James Monroe, v\as one of the commissioners 
making the purchase, afterward said, " We have lived long, but this is the noblest work 
of our whole lives." Napoleon also, who, v.hile he felt the necessity of the sale, 
saw the vast importance of the region, is reported to have said: "I have just given to 
England a maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her pride." Li 1804, the 
northern part of this region was explored by Captains Lewis and Clark, ^\■ho brought 
back detailed accounts of its geography and resources. A part of it was organized as 
the " Territory of Orleans," the other portions retaining the name of the Territory of 
Louisiana. In 1805, a part of the Northwestern Territory was organized as a separate 
territory, under the name of Michigan. 

For a long time before this the Barbary States had been interfering with our 
commerce, and had taken and held in captivity not a few of our people. In 1803, 
Commodore Preble, with a squadron, was sent against them, and in the summer of the 
next year he bombarded Tripoli, and with the help of a deposed sovereign of Tripoli, 
captured the seaport of Derne, and secured a treaty of peace, effecting the liberation 6i 
many sailors who had been held as captives. Before this, when the frigate Philadelphia 
had been run aground in the harbor. Lieutenant Decatur, with less than sixty men, had 
boarded that vessel, under the very guns of the enemy, and killed or forced overboard 
every one of her defenders, set fire to the vessel, and returned with not a man killed and 
only four wounded. 

In the meantime a most sad and tragic event occurred at home. Aaron Burr, the 
vice-president, seeing he would not again be likely to be nominated for the presidency, 
sought to be governor of New York, but was defeated mainly through the opposition 
of Ale.xander Hamilton, who thus incurred his bitter enmity and was challenged by 
Burr to a duel, in which he was killed, the country thus losing one of the most brilliant 
and useful men of its early history. Burr afterward was accused of plotting, with 
Blenerhasset and others, to separate the Southern and Western States from the Union, 
and organize another government of which he was to be the head. He always denied 
this, and in his later years is reported to have said that his only plan was to seize 
Mexico, and hold it as a separate government till it might possibly become a State of 
the Union, thus doing for Me.xico what forty years later was done by General Sam 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



239 



Houston for Texas. But political feeling was bitter against him and he was arrested 
and tried for treason, but was aquitted. He afterward went abroad, and later came 
back to New York, to engage in the practice of law, but he was generally neglected, 
and died in poverty in 1836. 

In 1804, Jefferson was re-elected, with George Clinton as Vice-President, but by a 
twelfth amendment to the Constitution, the president and vice-president were 
henceforth to be voted for separately by the electors, so that it could never again be left 
to the House of Representatives, as in the case of Jefferson and Burr, to decide which 
of two men having the same number of votes should be president. During Jefferson's 
second term of office, war was going on between France and England, and the latter, by 




DUEL BETWEEN BURR AND HAMILTON. 



her powerful navy, having swept from the seas most of the vessels of France and her 
allies, the Americans found profitable employment in carrying in their vessels goods for 
France and other European nations. To put a stop to this, England, in 1806, declared 
a blockade of the coast of Europe, thus shutting out American and other vessels; in 
retaliation for which Bonaparte declared a blockade of the British Islands. American 
vessels on their way to their different ports were captured by the English or French, 
and as a consequence, American commerce was seriously injured; and later still, the 
famous "orders in council" of the British, and the "Milan Decree" by Napoleon, 
worked ruinously to our shipping and commerce. 



240 



OUR COUNTRY. 



As a further step in their arrogance and injury, the British asserted their right to 
search American vessels, and to take from them any sailors whom they claimed as 
having been British subjects, and pressing them into the English service ; and in 
carrying out this insolent claim they frequently seized and forced into the British navy, 
Americans, under pretense that they were deserters. In 1807, the American frigate 
Chesapeake refusing to give up men thus claimed, was fired upon by the British frigate 
Leopard. The Chesapeake was unable to make any resistance, and the officers tendered 
their swords, but the English officers declined to receive them, and demanded the 
muster-roll of the ship. Four of her crew, three of whom were Americans, were picked 
out as deserters, and carried off and impressed by the British ; and tliough the act was 




THE OFFICERS OF THE CHESAPEAKE OFFERING THEIR SWORDS. 



afterward disavowed by the English government no reparation was made. This outrage 
brought out Jefferson s proclamation forbidding British vessels from entering our ports; 
and in 1807, Congress passed the " Embargo Act," prohibiting all exportation from our 
ports. The intended object of this measure was to force England and France to 
acknowledge our rights as neutrals, but in actual effect it caused great distress and was 
ruinous to our commerce; and the act being violently opposed, after about fourteen 
months was repealed. In this state of affairs Jefferson, having declined a nomination 
for a third term of office, retired from the presidency, and Jam-2s Madison and George 
Clinton were nominated and elected as president and vice-president. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



241 



Madison's Administration— 1809 to 18x7. 

The fourth President of the United States, James Madison of Virginia, was 
inaugurated March 4, 1809, with George Chnton of New York, as Vice-President. 

He was born in King George's county, Virginia, March 16, 175 1; was graduated 

with high honor from 



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I II, 



'''I'll 



iiiii 



I 



in I 



I 



1 1 I 
I 



;:!'^r:;: .„„„ 

|M II l'*„ 



|iii'|i>i,l iii;i , I ''';.' 



Princeton College in 
771, and soon after 
ntered on the practice 
if law. In 1776, he 
/as a member of the 
Virginia Convention, 
and from this time on 
his life was devoted to 
politics, and he became 
one of the most emin- 
ent, accomplished, and 
respected of American 
statesmen. He was not 
regarded as an orator, 
but so extensive was 
his information, so 
luminous and discrim- 
inating his mind, and 
so uniformly sound his 
judgment, that Jeffer- 
son said of him that he 
was " first in every 
assembly of which he 
was a member;" and 
Chief Justice Marshall, 
when once asked, who 
of all the public 
speakers he had heard, 
he thought the most eloquent, replied : " If eloquence includes persuasion by 
convincing, then Mr. Madison is the most eloquent man I ever heard." 

Madison was from the beginning, intelligent and active in all that prepared the way 
for independence. He was one of the leading members of the convention that met in 
Philadelphia in 1787, for framing the Constitution of the United States; and next to 
Hamilton, he was the leading writer of the Federalist, of which Judge Story said : " It 
was an incomparable commentary on the Constitution." So successful was he in fixing 
his own views of government in that remarkable instrument, that he was often called 
the "Father of the Constitution." On coming to the presidency, Madison, who had 
favored a peace policy, found that war was inevitable. In 1809, the " Embargo Act " 
was repealed, and the "Non-Intercourse Act" was passed, forbidding trading with 
16 




JAMES MADISON. 



242 OUR COUNTRY. ' 

Great Britain and France. France, in iSio, repealed the "Milan Decree"; in 1810, 
Madison, by proclamation, declared that commerce with France was free, but was 
prohibited to Great Britain. The right of search by the latter country was still 
insisted on, and si.K thousand seamen, who were not Englishmen, it is said, were pressed 
into the British service. 

In 181 1, the American frigate " President" hailing the British sloop of war "Little 
Belt," instead of a satisfactory answer received a shot in return. An action followed 
in which the British vessel was disabled and silenced, having eleven men killed and 
twenty-one wounded. Within seven or eight years the British had captured some nine 
hundred American vessels for violating their unjust regulations, and the indignant 
feelings of the American people had so increased that on the 19th of June, 1812, war 
was declared against England, and Henry Dearborn of Massachusetts, was appointed 
commander-in-chief, and the president was authorized to borrow $11,000,000. 

The first aggressive movement was against Canada, led by General Hull, governor 
of Michigan, who crossed to Sandwich, but hearing that the British had taken 
Mackinaw, he returned to Detroit, where in turn he was attacked by General Brock and 
the British forces. The Americans were prepared and eager for battle, but Hull, who 
was both incompetent and cowardly, surrendered without an effort all his forces and the 
territory to the enemy, for which he was dismissed from the army and afterward court- 
martialed and sentenced to be shot, but was finally pardoned by the President. 
The day before this disgraceful surrender, Fort Dearborn, where Chicago now stands, 
was surrendered to the Indians, and though the garrison was promised safety, many of 
them were cruelly massacred, and the fort was burned. 

On the 13th of October another detachment of Americans crossed from Lewiston 
into Canada, and attacked the British on Queenstown Heights, but were overpowered, 
chiefly from the failure of the New York militia to come to their aid, as had been 
expected. A hundred and sixty of the Americans were killed, and a large number 
taken prisoners. 

The failure of the Americans by land was offset by their success in several brilliant 
naval engagements. The first was on the 9th of August, when Captain Dacres, of the 
British frigate Guerriere, was forced to surrender to the Constitution, called 
"Old Ironsides," commanded by Captain Hull, the Guerriere being so badly battered 
that she had to be destroyed. In October, the sloop of war Wasp attacked and took 
the British brig Frolic, which was convoying a fleet of merchant vessels; but the Wasp 
was soon after captured by the much heavier British vessel Poictiers. In the same year 
the frigate United States, Commodore Decatur, captured the British frigate Macedonia, 
the Americans suffering little loss, and inflicting much. And the Constitution, 
Commodore Bainbridge, after a fierce engagement, captured the British frigate Java, 
which was so riddled and shattered that she had to be burned. Beside these victories, 
which caused the greatest enthusiasm in the United States, and equal dismay in 
England, American privateers had captured during the year some three hundred 
merchant vessels and taken over three thousand prisoners. 

Madison was re-elected President, entering on his second term in 1813, with 
Elbridge Gerry as Vice-President, Clinton having died in the previous year. In 18 13 
the American forces were divided into three departments, that of the West under 
General Harrison, that of the Center under General Dearborn, and that of the North 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



243 




PERRY S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE. 



244 OUR COUNTRY. 

under General Wade Hampton. The object of the first was to recover Detroit and 
Michigan from the EngHsh, and in January the forces under General Winchester took 
Frenchtovvn, repulsing the British, but were in turn attacked and obliged to surrender 
to a much larger force of British and Indians under General Proctor, who promised them 
safety. But when Proctor had departed, the Indians, maddened by liquor, fell upon 
the Americans with savage ferocity, murdering many, setting fire to houses that were 
filled with the wounded, and carrying away numerous captives whom they held for 
ransom. General Harrison, who was now in command, built Fort Meigs, where, in May, 
he was beseiged by Proctor and his Indians, but General Clay coming from Kentucky 
with twelve hundred men, the assailants were defeated, and the siege raised. The 
Indians acted with their usual ferocity toward some prisoners they had taken. 
Tecumseh on one occasion saved one of the captains from their brutality, and even 
rebuked Proctor, who had said he could not restrain the Indians, sternly saying to him, 
"Go and put on petticoats; you are not fit to command men!" In July, the British 
and Indians, 40,000 in number, attacked Fort Meigs, but after a fierce conflict, in which 
they suffered severely, the siege was abandoned. 

During the summer of this year, a fleet of nine American vessels, carrying fifty-four 
guns, was placed on Lake Erie, under command of Commodore Perry, where they were 
opposed by si.K English vessels, carrying sixty-three guns, under Commodore Barclay. 
A battle between these two opposing forces took place in September, lasting three 
hours, and resulting in a brilliant victory for the Americans. It was reported by Perry 
in a brief and modest despatch, saying, " We have met the enemy and they are ours. 
Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop." Harrison's forces now crossed into 
Canada, where, after taking Maiden, they pursued the British forces to a strong point 
on the river Thames, where, on the 5th of October, a battle was fought, in which the 
British were defeated. The Indians fought bravely under Tecumseh, till a bullet ended 
his life, when they fled, and the victoiy of the Americans was complete, so that 
Michigan was recovered. Lake Erie was in possession of the Americans, Ohio was safe, 
the Indian confederacy was broken, and Harrison's army was now able to join the army 
of the Center. 

The invasion of Canada now being the leading object. General Dearborn crossed 
Lake Ontario and attacked York, now Toronto, which the British abandoned, blowing 
up the magazine, thus killing or wounding some two hundred Americans. General 
Dearborn then took Fort George, which gave the Americans possession of all the 
Canada side of the Niagara river. The British soon afterward, after being repulsed 
from Sackett's Harbor, recaptured Fort George, took Fort Niagara, and made several 
plundering excursions into northern New York, setting fire to Buffalo, Lewiston, and 
some other villages. During the year several battles at sea had taken place. In 
February, the sloop of war Hornet, Captain James Lawrence, had a short, but severe, 
battle with the British brig Peacock, in which the latter, having surrendered, sunk 
almost immediately. Lawrence was then put in command of the Chesapeake, which 
had a bloody engagement with the British frigate Shannon, in which every one of the 
American of^cers were killed or wounded, and Lawrence himself received a mortal shot. 
His last expression was, " Don't give up the ship;" and he was afterward buried with 
all the honors of war. In August, the American brig Argus took as prizes some twenty 
merchant vessels, but was herself captured by the British brig Pelican. The British 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



245 



brig Boxer was captured by the American vessel Enterprise. During the year the 
British squadron on the New England coast bombarded Lewiston, and the English 
vessels in Delaware and Chesapeake bays burned Frenchtown, Georgetown, Havre de 
Grace, and Frederick, and attempted to capture Norfolk, but were repulsed with 
heavy loss. 

In 1814, the Northern campaign was on the Niagara frontier, where, on the 30th of 
July, General Brown, assisted by Generals Scott and Ripley crossed the river, took 
Fort Erie, and advancing to Chippewa, defeated the British under General Riall. On 
the 25th, the two armies met at Lundy's Lane, 
where, in an action that was not decisive 
each side lost about eight hundred men. The 
Americans then fell back to Fort Erie, where 
they were attacked by the British, five thousand 
strong, who were repulsed with a loss of one 








THE BURNING OF WASHINGTON 



thousand men, and afterward 
were so badly beaten that they 
gave up the seige of the fort, 
which after some time was 
blown up by the Americans 
as they withdrew from the 
Canada shore, going into 
winter quarters in Buffalo. 

England, having now 
successfully concluded her 
war with France, sent large 
numbers of her veterans to 
join her forces in this country, 



246 OUR COUNTRY. 

and, in September,, Sir George Provost, with fourteen thousand troops, attempted 
to invade the United States by way of Lake Champlain, and advanced on Plattsburg, 
where General Macomb was stationed with less than two thousand men. The 
American squadron, under Commodore McDonough, was lying in the harbor, and on 
the nth of September the British land forces, supported by the deet under 
Commodore Downie, began the attack. After a contest of two hours, some of the 
British vessels struck their colors, and those that could sailed away. On the shore, the 
overwhelming forces of the British had well-nigh gained a footing, when the Americans, 
inspired by the victory on the lake, rallied and drove them back, and the day was 
won. The British having lost two thousand five hundred men, retired to Canada, 
the victory of the Americans being complete. 

While these events were taking place at the North, the British fleet, bearing some 
four thousand soldiers, arrived on the coast of Virginia, and General Ross and his forces 
began their march to Washington, forty miles away. On the 24th of August, they 
entered the city, which had been deserted by the President and other ofihcials, burned 
the President's house, the magnificent but unfinished capitol, and other buildings, 
doing damage to the amount of $2,000,000. General Ross offered to spare the city for 
a large sum of money, but unfortunately there was no one within reach who was 
authorized to make such a bargain. The burning of Washington was a disgrace and 
crime for which no excuse can be given. Part of the British squadron sailed up the 
Potomac to Alexandria and there captured twenty-one vessels and large quantities of 
flour and tobacco. Ross now sailed to attack Baltimore, but landing at North Point, 
they were met by the Americans, and in a skirmish Ross was killed. The British fleet 
then sailed up the Patapsco, and all day and night bombarded Fort McHenry, but 
producing little effect, the troops were re-embarked and the fleet sailed away. It was 
during this bombardment that the noted piece, "The Star-Spangled Banner," was 
composed by Francis Key. 

In August, Commodore Hardy bombarded Stonington, Connecticut, but the 
gathering of the militia prevented his forces from landing, and this was one of the last 
assaults of the British, as the war was now drawing to its close. The last great conflict 
was at New Orleans, which was defended by General Jackson, after he had repulsed the 
British at Pensacola and taken that town. In December, 18 14, a powerful British fleet 
carrying some twelve thousand soldiers and also marines, under General Packenham, 
entered Lake Borgne to the northeast of New Orleans and began their march to the 
city, four miles below where Jackson had taken up a strong position, using bales of 
cotton and sand-bags to add to the strength of his works. There, with about six 
thousand men, he awaited the enemy's attack. On the 8th of January the assault was- 
made, the enemy charging across the open space under a terrible fire from cannon, and 
the still more terrible fire of the sharpshooters of Tennessee and Kentucky, who, safe 
behind their intrenchments, mowed the enemy down with their sure and deadly shots. 
Packenham was killed, the second in command mortally wounded, and the British 
troops were recalled, two thousand of their army having been killed, wounded, or 
captured, while the American loss was only seven killed and six wounded. The British 
then withdrew to their ships. 

On the 20th of February, Captain Charles Stewart, while cruising off Cape St. 
Vincent, in the Constitution, fell in with two British brigs, the Cyane and Levant. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



247 




CAPTURE OF THE CYANE AND LEVANT. 



248 OUR COUNTRY. 

The British vessels maneuvered to get the better position, but Stewart held them, as 
may be said, each at a corner of a triangle, while he kept the third corner, firing his 
forward guns into one, and his after guns into the other. Both vessels were captured. 

These were the closing battles of the war of 18 12, for news soon came that a treaty 
of peace had been signed in Great Britain before the battle of New Orleans. In the 
summer of 1814, commissioners had been sent from this country to meet others from 
Great Britain, and the treaty had been signed on the 24th of December, though the 
news did not reach this country till February, on the iSth of which it was ratified by 
the United States Senate, and the President proclaimed peace. The treaty was little 
more than an agreement to stop all hostilities, but though there were no formal 
assurances that the grievances which had led to the war should cease, yet this was the 
practical result of the war, the many American victories of which had given a lesson as 
to the power of the United States that was not likely to be forgotten. Both nations 
rejoiced at the return of peace. Hundreds of vessels and thousands of lives had been 
lost on both sides; and at the close of the war our public debt was $ioo,OCX3,ooo. The 
charter of the United States Bank was now renewed, a heavy duty was laid on imported 
merchandise, public credit was restored, shipbuilding again commenced, factories were 
re-opened, commerce revived, and prosperity returned to the nation. 

During the eight years of Madison's administration Louisiana was admitted, as the 
seventeenth State, to the Union in 1812; and Mississippi, as the eighteenth, in 1817. 
The famous "Hartford Convention" was also held in 1814. Its deliberations were 
secret, and it was charged by some with having treasonable aims, but all that came of it 
was the recommendation of some changes in the Constitution. 

There was war also, during this administration, with the Indians of the 
Northwest, led by the famous Tecumseh. General Harrison marching against 
them, was met near their town of Tippecanoe by a proposal for a conference 
the next day, to which he assented, but knowing the treacherous nature of the 
Indians, he ordered his soldiers to remain armed and watchful through the night. 
Before sunrise the next day, November 7, 181 1, the savages, creeping along 
the ground, rushed suddenly upon the camp. But the soldiers, being fully prepared, 
sprang to their arms, and after a fierce conflict utterly overv/helmed the enemy and burned 
their town. Tecumseh, finding his people subdued, departed for Canada, where, as we 
have seen, he joined the British, fighting with whom against the Americans he was 
killed in 1813. 

There was trouble also with the Creek Indians in Alabama, who in 1813 surprised 
Fort Mimms, and murdered four hundred men, women and children. But they were 
defeated in several battles by Generals Jackson and Cofifee, six hundred of them being 
killed in the last of the conflicts in 18 14, when all that remained were glad to submit. 
During the war, too, Algiers had repeated her former outrages on American vessels, and 
after peace was declared Commodore Decatur was sent with nine vessels to right our 
wrongs. He captured two of the Algerine vessels, compelled the Bey to release all 
American captives, and then going to Tunis and Tripoli, obliged them to give pledges of 
good behavior for the future, thus ending our trouble with the Barbary States. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



249 



Monroe's Administration — 1817 to 1825. 

James Monroe was inaugurated as the fifth President of the United States, 
March 4, 18 17, with Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, as Vice-President. Mr. Monroe 
was born in Westmoreland county, Virginia, April 28, 1758. He entered the 

Revolutionary army at 
the age of eighteen, 
and was present in 
several battles, but 
afterward commenced 
the study of law. In 
1782 he was elected to 
the Assembly of 
Virginia, and the next 
year to Congress, where 
he took an active part 
in preparing the new 
Constitution. In 1799 
he was made governor 
of Virginia, and in 1803 
was sent by Jefferson as 
minister to France, 
where, with others, he 
effected the " Louisiana 
Purchase," which added 
so immensely to the 
territory of the United 
States. He had been 
Secretary of State under 
Madison, and had been 
employed in diplomatic 
services both in England 
and Spain. He was an 
able statesman, but not 
a speaker, nor a man 
of brilliant talents. 
His biographer says of him': "The one idea he represents consistently from the 
beginning to the end of his career, is this, that America is for Americans. He resists the 
British sovereignty in his early youth; he insists on the importance of free navigation in 
the Mississippi; he negotiates the purchase of Louisiana and Florida; he gives a vigorous 
impulse to the prosecution of the second war with Great Britain, when neutral rights 
were endangered ; and, finally, he announces the Monroe Doctrine." 

His election was not r&garded as a triumph of either the Federal or Republican 
party, but as a result in which people of both parties were united. In September, a 
treaty was made with the Indians north of the Ohio river, by which their claims to the 
country were purchased for certain sums of money and promised annuities, so that the 




JAMES MONROE. 



250 



OUR COUNTRY. 



region was thus opened to white settlers. 
The Indians were by arrangement located 
on reservations, a plan which has since 
been carried out with most of the larger 
Indian tribes, in the hope that so thcj- 
might be led to the industries and habits 
of civilization. The government also 
suppressed and dispersed the bands 
freebooters who were engaged in 
privateering, and also in the slave trade on 
the coasts of Florida and Texas. 

Before the close of the year the 
Seminole Indians, encouraged by the 




A SCENE IN THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF OHIO. 



TPIE ADMINISTRATIONS. 2$ I 

Spanish authorities of Florida, began hostilities in Georgia. General Jackson was sent 
against them, and with a thousand riflemen from Tennessee he laid waste their country, 
and then marching to Florida, captured the Fort of St. Marks, took Pensacola, and 
seized and executed two Englishmen who had incited the Indians to war. This act, which 
excited great indignation in England, was approved by the government, and was afterward 
admitted by England to have been just. And out of these proceedings came 
negotiations with Spain which resulted in the purchase of Florida in 1819 for $5,000,000, 
and which also led to fixing the boundary of Mexico at the Sabine river. 

During Monroe's administration the famous " Missouri Compromise," fixing the 
dividing line between the slave and free States, was passed, largely through the influence 
of Henry Clay. It went into effect in February, 1821, and for years settled the 
agitating question of the limits of slavery. In the fall of 1820 President Monroe and 
Vice-President Tompkins were re-elected, and a second time were inaugurated, 
March 4, 1821. In the next year, the President, in a message to Congress, recommended 
the recognition of the South American republics, which had been struggling against 
Spain for their independence. In 1823 he announced the noted "Monroe Doctrine," in 
which he asserted that the American continents " are not henceforth to be considered as 
subjects for future colonization by any European power," and declared the American 
policy of neither entangling ourselves in the broils of Europe, nor suffering the powers of 
the Old World to interfere with the affairs of the New, and that "any attempt to extend 
their system to any portion of this hemisphere would be dangerous to our peace and 
safety," a doctrine heartily endorsed by the American people. 

The great popular event of Monroe's administration was the visit of L.afayette to 
the United States. He had come to this country in the days of the Revolution and 
fought with our armies to secure our independence: and now that a mighty nation had 
taken the place of the colonies, he was everywhere received with the highest honors and 
congratulations, and travelled as in triumph through the length and breadth of the land. 
While in Boston, on the 17th of June, 1825, — that being the fiftieth anniversary of the 
battle of Bunker Hill, — he laid the corner-stone of the monument then about to be 
raised. He returned to France after about a year, in the frigate Brandywine, so named 
in honor of the first battle in which the French had fought side by side with the 
Americans. 

During this administration, Mississippi, Alabama, Illinois, Maine, and Missouri were 
admitted to the Union as States, and Arkansas was made a Territory. The work of 
piracy in the West Indies, from which our commerce had suffered, was suppressed. 
Monroe was an honorable and able statesman, though not a speaker nor a man of 
brilliant talents. Like his predecessors, Adams and Jefferson, he died on the 4th of July. 



Administration of John Quincy Adams — 1825 to 1829. 

The sixth President of the United States was John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts. 
He was inaugurated with John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, as Vice-President, 
March 4, 1825. There were several candidates for the office, but no one having a 
majority of votes, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, when 
Mr. Adams was chosen. Mr. Adams was a son of John Adams, the second President 



OUR COUNTRY. 



of the United States. He was born in Massachusetts, July ii, 1767; was graduated 
from Harvard college in 1788, and after studying law, entered on its practice in 1791. 
In 1794 he was appointed by Washington minister to the Hague, and afterward was 

appointed by his father 
minister to Berlin. In 
1809 he was appointed 
by Madison minister to 
Russia, and while there 
was appointed associate 
judge of the United 
States Supreme Court, 
but declined the 
appointment. After 
retiring from the presi- 
dency, for seventeen 
years he was in 
Congress, where in the 
House of Representa- 
tives he was always at 
his post and always at 
work, and distinguished 
not only for his 
knowledge and wise 
statesmanship, but as 
the uniform champion 
of the right of petition. 
He was one of the most 
thoroughly educated 
and most remarkable 
men of his time, 
independent, patriotic, 
and eminently faithful in 
the many public ofifices 
he was called to fill. 
His administration was marked by few notable events. It was a time of peace, and 
the nation was steadily growing in population, wealth and power. The party lines which 
in early years had divided the country, had for the most part disappeared, and new 
parties were soon to arise, based on new issues. 

During the first year of his administration a difificulty arose, which was settled, with 
the authorities of Georgia. When that State had ceded her claims to the Territory of 
Mississippi, the national government had agreed to purchase and give to her the lands 
held by the Creek Indians within her limits, but had never done it. Georgia being 
dissatisfied, her governor was about to remove the Indians and take possession of their 
lands The danger of conflict with the general government for a time was serious, but 
finally the President made a treaty with the Creeks, purchasing their lands, and they 
removed to a reservation west of the Mississippi. 

In 1825 the Erie Canal was formally opened. At that time it was the most 
extensive public improvement ever undertaken in the United States. The canal, 




JOHN Q. ADAMS. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



253 



extending from Albany to Buffalo, was 363 miles in length, and its first cost was 
$7,600,000. Its completion, which took eight years, has greatly contributed to the 
prosperity of New York, the " Empire State," as well as to all the great and growing 
States of the West. 

The question of tariff, or duties on imported goods, was one which began to assume 
importance during this administration. One party insisted that such duties should be 
levied "only for revenue," that is, to provide means for the expenses of the government. 







EARL\ DA-Vb ON THE DELAWARE & HUDSON CANAL RAILROAD. 

Others advocated a protective tariff, or what was called the "American system," that is, a 
system of duties that should especially protect and encourage American manufactures. 
A tariff of the last mentioned kind was enacted in 1828, mainly throngh the influence of 
Henry Clay. The "Tariff Question" has ever since been a source of divided opinion 
and political action. 

Another event occurred m 1826 in New York which caused great excitement, 
and led to the formation of a new political party. William Morgan, a Freemason, in 



!54 



OUR COUNTRY. 



western New York, announcing he would reveal the secrets of Freemasonry, suddenly 
disappeared, and was never seen or heard of again. It was said, and by multitudes 
believed, that he had been murdered by the Masons, and the great and widespread 

excitement caused by 
his disappearance led 
to the formation of the 
"Anti-Masonic Party," 
which was strongest in 
New York, but spread 
to some extent through- 
out the country. In 
1832 it nominated 
William Wirt for the 
presidency, but after his 
defeat the party soon de- 
clined and disappeared. 
It was a singular 
coincidence that on the 
4th of July, 1826, the 
fiftieth anniversary of 
the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, John Adams 
and Thomas Jefferson 
both died. Eacfi had 
signed the Declaration 
of Independence, 
each had faithfully 
served the country, and 
each had been elected 
to its highest office, 
the presidency. 

John Quincy Adams was one of the ablest and most accomplished statesmen the 
country has ever produced. 




ANDREW JACKSON. 



Jackson's Administration — 1829 to 1837. 

The seventh President of the United States was Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee. He 
was inaugurated March 4, 1829, with John C. Calhoun, who had been re-elected 
Vice-President. His election was a victory for the Anti-Federal party, which now took the 
name " Democratic." 

Mr. Jackson was born in Waxhaw county, South Carolina, March 15, 1767. When 
the Revolution broke out he went to the field, being only thirteen years old, and 
remained with the army till the end of the war. Though he studied law, and was rising 
in his profession, he was soon called off from its practice to lead in the conflicts with the 
Indians, whom he fought with such bravery and success as to be named by them 
"Sharp Knife" and "Pointed Arrows." He was in the Legislature and then in the 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



255 



Senate of Tennessee, and was appointed judge of its supreme court, and also 
major-general of its militia. In several conflicts with the Indian tribes he was so 
energetic and successful, that he was appointed major-general of the United States army. 
As such, in the War of 1812 he defended New Orleans, and, as we have seen, defeated 
the British forces under General Packenham in 18 14, which gave him wonderful 
popularity. He was a man of strong character and iron will, unpolished, but thoroughly 
honest and incorruptible, aiming always at what he thought right and best for the 
country, and allowing nothing to turn him from his intended course. These traits, which 




A NEGRO VILLAGE. 



gave character to his administration, gained him the name of " Old Hickory," and he 
was loved as warmly by one party as he was decidedly opposed by the other. 

The charter of the United States Bank having expired, Jackson opposed its renewal, 
and when Congress renewed the charter, he vetoed the act, and before the expiration of 
the charter he removed from the bank the government deposits of some $10,000,000, 
distributing the funds among the different State banks. There was a fierce discussion 
in Congress over this act, and the Senate took the unusual course of passing a vote of 



256 



OUR COUNTRY. 



censure on the President, which stood on its records for four years till it was finally- 
expunged by a vote of the Senate. The bank was afterward chartered by the State of 

Pennsylvania, 
its chief office 
being in Phila- 
delphia. 

The tariff 
question came 
into threatening 
prominence in 
1832, from the 
fact that Con- 
gress in that 
year passed a 
bill laying 
heavy duties on 
a large number 
of important 
articles. This 
met with strong 
opposition, 
especially in 
South Carolina, 
where a State 
convention 
declared the act 
null and void, 
advising that 
the collection 
of duties at 
Charleston 
should be 
resisted if need 
be by force. 
This was called 
" Nullification," 
of which John 
C. Calhoun was 
a decided sup- 
porter. Open 
opposition to 
the government 
by force seemed 
impending, but 
Jackson, acting 
with his usual energy and promptness, issued a proclamation warning the people that 
the law would be enforced, and followed this up by sending a man-of-war to Charleston, 




SCENE IN FLORIDA NEAR ROCK LEDGE. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



257 



and ordering General Scott there with troops, saying he "would hang Calhoun as 
high as Haman, if he resisted the law." These steps prevented the threatened danger, 
and in the spring of 1833, a bill, proposed and carried through Congress by Mr. Clay, so 
modified the duties of the tariff that the trouble for the time came to an end. 

In 1832, Jackson was re-elected President, and Martin Van Buren, of New York, 
Vice-President. In this year the western Indians, led by the noted Black Hawk, began 
war against the people of Illinois, but after several battles they were defeated. Black 
Hawk was taken captive, and the Indians were removed further west. There was 
trouble also, as in the previous administration, with the Creeks in Georgia, as they were 




■\ '/ ■ ^^^i;;^- still on the lands claimed by that 



■'^ ^'<^ State. The United States court 

declared in their favor, but the President refused to 
interfere, and the difficulty was finally ended by the 
Indians going west to a reservation. 
A graver difficulty aro'^e with the Scminoles of Florida, whose hostilities began 
in 1835, two of their chiefs refusing to recognize a treaty made b)^ some other 
chiefs. The struggle lasted for several years, over a hundred men under General Dade 
being ambushed and murdered, only four escaping, and General Thompson and 
several of his friends being surprised and killed. Later, in 1836 and 1837, the 
Indians were defeated in several engagements by Generals Scott and Taylor, but they 
carried on an intermittent warfare from the swamps and everglades till 1842, when peace 
was established. 

In 1834, there was trouble with France, which liad persistently delayed the payment of 
some $5,000,000 which they had agreed to pay to satisfy claims for injuries done to American 
commerce during the time of Napoleon. In view of this continued neglect, the President 
17 



258 



OUR COUNTRY. 



ordered the American minister to leave France, and was preparing for still more decided 
steps, when France, seeing his decision and the danger of war, fulfilled her promise and paid 
the amount. Portugal, by the same decided course, was made to pay up similar claims. 

In 1830 the first 
locomotive was built 
in the United States, 
and the first passenger 
railroad, the Baltimore 
and Ohio, was opened 
for fifteen miles. 
In 1835 an immense 
fire took place in 
New York, destroying 
between five and six 
hundred buildings, 
and causing a loss of 
millions of dollars. In 
1836 Arkansas, 
and in 1837 Michigan, 
were admitted as 
States into the Union. 
Jackson removed more 
officials in one month 
than his predecessors 
had in forty years, and 
he used the veto power 
more freely than any 
President had ever done. 
The Whig party had 
become a successor of 
the Federal, and the 
Anti-Federal, a 
republican party, had 
now become known as 
the Democratic. 




MARTIN VAN EUREN. 



Van Buren's Administration — 1837 to 1841. 

The eighth President of the United States was Martin Van Buren, of New York, 
who was inaugurated March 4, 1837, with Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, as 
Vice-President. This election was a triumph of the Democratic party, and implied a 
continuance of the policy of Jackson's administration. 

Mr. Van Buren was born at Kinderhook, New York, in December, 1782. He was 
both a lawyer and a politician before he was of age. In 1812 he was in the 
State Senate, three years later was appointed attorney-general of theState, and was 
afterward made United States senator, to which office he was re-elected, but resigned 
to become governor of the State of New York. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 259 

In 1837, the first year of Van Buren's adminstration, occurred what was known as the 
"Panic of '37," in which most of the banks of the country suspended payment, causing an 
immense number of failures and great commercial suffering. The distribution of 
the national funds among the various State banks had led to a large increase 
of paper currency, and to a corresponding increase of loans, and this had led 
on to widespread speculation, especially in real estate ; and the fact that the 
government would receive only coin for its public lands drew large quantities of 
specie from the banks, and forced many of them to suspend specie payment. 
Congress, too, had authorized the distribution to the States of some $40,000,000 
of its surplus funds, and this amount being drawn from the banks of deposit, 
greatly increased the evil. In March and April the failures in New York city 
were for more than $100,000,000. An extra session of Congress was called, but 
little was done except to issue some $10,000,000 of Treasury notes, and though 
after a time business began to revive, for a long time the effects of the panic were felt 
throughout the country. 

The Seminole war still continued in the South, costing many lives and adding 
largely to the national debt; and in 1837 there was trouble, also, with Canada. In 
1791, the English parliament had divided Canada into an upper and a lower province. 
Each was constituted with a governor, an executive council nominated by the 
crown, a legislative council appointed for life in the same way, and a representative 
assembly elected for four years by popular vote. The powers of the State were 
ill-adjusted, and the assemblies of the two provinces became bitterly opposed to 
their governors and councils. For five years no provision had been made by the 
legislature of Lower Canada to pay for administering the government in the 
province. During four years the payments in arrears amounted to a large sum, the 
legislature refused to provide for it, and demanded an elected legislative council, 
and complete control over all branches of the government. The British parliament 
was willing to make some concessions, but not to the extent demanded. A rebellion 
followed, in which many Americans joined. Seven hundred men from New York 
seized and fortified Navy Island against the Canadian royalists, and the latter set fire 
to the Caroline, a vessel belonging to New Yorkers, and sent it burning over the 
Niagara Falls. But the President issued a proclamation of neutrality, and sent 
General Scott to the region of the trouble with a strong force, so that after some 
time the disturbance was quieted. 

In 1840, Congress passed the "Sub-Treasury Bill," the object of which was to 
provide for the safe keeping of the public funds of the country. Van Buren's 
administration had been held responsible for the financial depression that marked its 
commencement, but the foundation of the trouble was laid while Jackson was President. 

The next election was one of great excitement. General Harrison being nominated 
for the Presidency; and as a Democratic paper had sneeringly said that "Harrison 
would be satisfied with a log-cabin and a barrel of hard cider," the expression was caught 
up as a party watchword through the land. Log cabins were everywhere erected, and 
as Harrison had gained the great victory of Tippecanoe in the war of 18 12, the 
campaign cry of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" rang through the land, and the result was 
a sweeping victory for Harrison and Tyler. 



26o 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Administrations of Harrison and Tyler — 1841 to 1845. 



The ninth President of the United States was William H. Harrison, of Ohio, who- 
was inaugurated March 4th, 1841, with John Tyler, of Virginia, as Vice-President. He 
was a son of Benjamin Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, 

and was born in Virginia, 
February 9, 1773. In 
1792, he joined the army 
which Wayne was lead- 
ing against the Indians. 
In 1 80 1, he was made 
a governor of Indiana, 
and afterward repre- 
sented that State in 
Congress. In 1811, in 
the war with the Indians, 
which soon became a 
war with the English in 
Canada, as Commander- 
in-Chief he showed great 
militarj- promptness and 
talent. He defeated the 
Indians in the famous 
battle of Tippecanoe, 
and aided by the victory 
of Perry on Lake Erie, 
was enabled to pursue 
the British invaders into 
Canada, where he totally 
routed them in the 
battle of the Thames, 
October 5, 1813. He 
was elected to Congress 
in 1 8 16, and in 1824 
to the United States 
Senate. He was afterward ambassador to Columbia. He selected an able Cabinet 
and called an extra session of Congress to legislate on matters of finance, but 
before Congress assembled he sickened and died on the 4th of April, just one month 
after taking office. According to the Constitution, Tyler then became President, and 
took the oath of office on the 6th of April. He retained the cabinet which had been 
appointed by Harrison. 

When Congress met, the sub-treasury bill was repealed, and a bankrupt law was 
passed. A bill was also passed renewing the charter of the United States Bank, but it 
was vetoed by Tyler, who, on this point, held the views of Jackson. Congress then 
passed a modified bill for a bank, and that, also, was vetoed by Tyler, when at once all 




WILLIAM H. HARRISON. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



261 






his cabinet resigned except the Secretary of State, Daniel Webster. He remained in 
office to complete negotiations with Lord Ashburton, who had been sent by Great 
Britain to settle some of the Northern and Northeastern boundaries of the United 

States which had been 
left unsettled by the 
treaty of 1 783. By 
them the Northeastern 
boundary was definitely 
fixed, and the Northern 
also as far west as the 
Rocky Mountains. The 
boundary beyond that 
was not settled till four 
years later. 

In the same year 
there was trouble in 
Rhode Island from the 
disturbance known as 
"Dorr's Rebellion." 
Under a new Constitu- 
tion, which it was 
claimed was not 
ratified by the people, 
Thomas W. Dorr was 
chosen governor, and 
attempted to assume 
that ofifice. But the 
"Law and Order" 
party, led by Governor 
King, denied his claims. 
Both sides took up arms 
and the Dorr party was 
twice dispersed, though 
without bloodshed, by the aid of national troops. A new Constitution was then formed 
which was ratified by the people, and went into effect in 1843. Dorr was convicted of 
treason, but was afterward pardoned and restored to citizenship. There was also trouble 
for some years in New York, with the anti-renters, who refused to pay the rents which had 
always been paid to the Patroon estate at and near Albany, but this at last was quieted, 
and in 1846 the State constitution abolished all feudal tenures. 

Some years before this the Mormon religion had been started by Joseph Smith, who 
pretended he had found some golden plates near Palmyra, New York, on which was 
written the revelation which was the foundation of his system. Gathering a company 
of followers he went to Ohio, and when driven out from that State he went to Missouri, 
and from there to Illinois, where he founded the town of Nauvoo. Here the numbers 
of the Mormons increased to some thousands, and defying the laws, Smith and his 
brother were arrested and imprisoned and afterward killed by a mob. In 1846, the great 




JOHN TYLER. 



262 



OUR COUNTRY. 



body of the Mormons went still further West, and in 1S48, laid the foundation of their 
city at Salt Lake, in Utah. 

During the last year of Tyler's administration the country was agitated by the 
proposed annexation of Texas, which had been part of Mexico, but in 1835 had 
declared itself independent. The South favored annexation, intending to make Texas a 
slave State; and the North, for that reason, strongly opposed it. The question was 




SALT LAKE CITY, 



hotly debated in Congress and throughout the country, and finally Texas was annexed 
in 1845. Florida was also admitted to the Union in 1845. I" 1844, the first electric 
telegraph line in the world was established between Washington and Baltimore. 
Professor Samuel F. B. Morse had invented the telegraphic system thirteen years before, 
but not till tliis year did he obtain from Congress an appropriation of $30,000, which 
enabled him to bring his wonderful invention into practical use. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



263 



Administration op' Polk — 1845 to 1849. 



The eleventh President of the United States was James K. Polk, of Tennessee, 
who was inaugurated March 4, 1845, with George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, as 
Vice-President. Mr. Polk was born in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, 

November 2, 1795. 
He was educated at 
the university of North 
Carolina ; was admitted 
to the bar in 1820; was 
a member of Congress, 
and speaker of the 
House of Representa- 
tives for five sessions, 
and in 1839, ^^'^s made 
governor of Tennessee. 
He was devoted to the 
principles of the Jackson 
democracy, to State 
rights, to an independ- 
ent treasury, to a tariff 
only for revenue, and 
to a strict construction 
of the Constitution. 

The most important 
event of his administra- 
tion was the Mexican 
war, originating in the 
annexation of Texas, 
which Mexico still 
claimed as part of her 
territor)- ; and besides 
this the southwestern 
boundary of Texas was 
still unsettled, that 
State claiming to the 
Rio Grande, and Mexico denying the claim, and preparing to enforce by arms her 
asserted rights. Proposals for a peaceful settlement of the question made by our 
government had been rejected by Mexico, and General Taylor was sent to the disputed 
territory, where he built Fort Brown. The Mexican forces demanded Taylor's 
withdrawal, but as he remained and strengthened his defenses, hostilities commenced. 
The Mexicans, after surprising and capturing a body of dragoon,-whD had been sent to 
reconnoitre, with a force of six thousand men attacked Fort Brown, and in a battle that 
took place were defeated by Taylor, who the next day attacked and defeated another 
body of Mexicans, their loss being a thousand, while that of the Americans was but 




JAMES K. rOLK. 



264 



OUR COUNTRY. 



little more than a hundred. On the iSth of May, Taylor crossed the Rio Grande and 
took possession of Matamoras. 

When the news of these things reached Washington, Congress declared war with 
Mexico, placing $10,000,000 at the disposal of the President, and authorizing him to 
accept 50,000 volunteers for the army. General Wool had charge of the new recruits; 
a fleet was to be sent to attack Mexico on the Pacific coast ; a column was to invade 
that country from the North; and still others were to invade and conquer New Mexico 
and California. In September, 1846, Taylor, with six thousand troops, marched against 
Monterey, which was defended by nine thousand Mexicans, and the place was 






THE CITY OF MEXICO. 



surrendered on the 24th. He then advanced and occupied Saltillo, while Tampico was 
taken by our naval forces. Part of his forces now went to the aid of General Scott, who 
was to invade Mexico by way of Vera Cruz. Santa Anna, who had been recalled from 
exile and made president and commander of the Mexican forces, now marched with 
twenty thousand men to attack Taylor, and in the battle of Buena Vista he was badly 
defeated by the Americans, February 23, 1847, thus securing the frontier of the Rio 
Grande, and leaving our forces free to act against Vera Cruz. 

While these events were occurring in the South, General Kearney, with the army 
of the West, marching one thousand miles overland, took possession of Santa Fe, and 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



265 




266 



OUR COU.XTKY. 



continuing his march to California, was met with the news that that country was already 
in possession of Fremont, wlio, before the opening of the war, had been sent with an 
exploring party to seek a new route to Oregon further south than the one usually taken 
by emigrants. While in California, Fremont learned that the Mexican commander was 
raising a force to expel the American settlers from the province, and a message was sent 
him from Washington to protect the Americans and their interests. The Americans had 
had several conflicts with the Mexicans in which the latter were beaten, and by the 
advice of Fremont the Americans declared their independence of Mexico, July 5, 1846. 
Just at this time Commander Sloat on the Pacific seized Monterey, and Commodore 
Stockton a little later took San Diego ; and the united land and naval forces captured 
Los Angeles on the 17th of August. Thus by Fremont and Stockton the Mexican 
authority in California was overturned. Meanwhile Colonel Doniphan, in New Mexico, 
with less than a thousand men, marching southward, had subdued some hostile Indians; 




^S^ V -^ ,^ < , , - ^ -^ \ 






— \ ». 



w 






A WOODLAND SCENE. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 267 

gained two successive victories over superior Mexican forces, and taken possession of 
Ciiihuahua, a city of forty tiiousand inliabitants, after wliich lie joined General Wool at 
Saltillo in May. 

In the beginning of 1847, General Scott, who was now commander-in-chief in 
Mexico, with an army of twelve thousand men, began the siege of Vera Cruz, which was 
guarded by the strong castle of San Juan De Ulloa, and after a furious bombardment of 
four days the city was surrendered on the 27th of March, with five thousand prisoners, 
and five hundred pieces of artillery. Scott now began an advance on the city of Mexico, 
but was met by Santa Anna with fresh troops at the pass of Cerro Gordo, and in a 
battle which took place the Mexicans were defeated, and the Americans continuing their 
advance, took Pueblo, where they waited some three months for reinforcements. 

In August, with his army now numbering about ten thousand men, Scott resumed 
his march towards the city of Mexico which was defended by thirty thousand Mexicans 
under Santa Anna, as well as by strong fortifications. On the 20th of August, in 
assaults by five different detachments five victories were gained by the United States 
troops with a loss of eleven hundred men, while the loss of the Mexicans was four 
thousand, killed and wounded, and three thousand taken prisoners. The next day the 
Mexicans asked for an armistice, which Scott granted in hope of making peace, but his 
proposals being rejected by Santa Anna hostilities were renewed, and the Mexicans were 
defeated in several engagements, their whole army being routed. On the 14th of 
September, Scott entered the city, and by the fall of the capital the war was practically 
at an end. Santa Anna made one or two other attacks on our forces, but in each case 
was defeated and soon became a fugitive, and the power o.f Mexico was thoroughly 
broken. The war was formally ended by the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, February 
2, 184S, and peace was proclaimed on the 4th of July following. This treaty ceded to 
the United States, New Mexico, California and Utah; and Mexico received for the 
ceded territory a compensation of $15,000,000; and the debts due to American citizens 
from Mexico, to the amount of $3,000,000, were assumed by the United States. 

In the Mexican war the Mexican forces were nearly four times as many as our own, 
and yet within about a year our armies had fought and won thirty battles, taken one 
thousand cannon, carried ten fortified places, and completed the conquest of Mexico and 
California without the loss of a single battle. 

About this time gold was discovered in California, an account of which is given in 
the history of that State. During this administration our Northwest boundary was 
settled by treaty with England, in June, 1846. In 1846, Iowa, and in 1848, Wisconsin 
was admitted to the Union; and in 1846, David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, proposed a 
bill in Congress prohibiting slavery in all the territory that might be gained from Mexico. 
This " Wilmot Proviso," as it was called, was defeated, but it laid the foundation of the 
noted "free-soil" party, which decided the fate of the next Presidential campaign. 



Administration of Taylor and Fillmore — 1849 to 1853. 

The twelfth President was Zachary Taylor, of Kentucky, with Millard Fillmore, of 
New York, as Vice-President. As the 4th of March came on Sunday, the inauguration 
was on the following day, March 5th, 1849. 



268 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Mr. Taylor was born in Orange county, Virginia, November 24th, 1784. Going 
early into Kentucky he had few advantages of education. He entered the army, 
and in 1812, as captain, with only fifty men, he made a gallant defense of Fort Harrison 

against the Indians led 
by the famous Tecum- 
seh, for which he was 
made a major-general. 
He gained several vic- 
tories over the Indians 
who were allies of 
Great Britain in 1812; 
and in the Mexican 
L 11 . I ., , I'lHl war he won a decided 

victory over Santa 
Anna, who had four 
times the forces of the 
Americans, a result 
which excited the great- 
est enthusiasm through 
the country, and led to 
his nomination to the 
presidency. 

He had scarcely 
entered on his office 
when the slaveiy ques- 
tion again excited sharp 
and bitter discussion, 
both in Congress ajid 
throughout the coun- 
try. It came up in 
Congress on the appli- 
cation of California to 
be admitted to the 
Union as a free State, 
the South wishing it to be open to slavery, while the North insisted on slavery being 
prohibited. Other connected questions added to the excitement of feeling and debate, 
the South desiring efficient laws for the return of fugitive slaves, while the North 
insisted on the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. The violent 
debates in Congress, with threats of secession by the South, led to a Compromise Act, 
proposed by Clay, which embraced so many different measures that it was called the 
"Omnibus Bill." It proposed that California should come in as a free State; that 
Utah and New Mexico should be made territories without any mention of slavery; 
that $10,000,000 should be paid to Texas in satisfaction of her claims to the latter 
territory; that the slave trade should be abolished in the District of Columbia; and 
finally, that rigorous laws should be passed for the return of slaves who might have 
escaped from their masters to the free States. The discussions on this measure lasted 




ZACHARY TAYLOR. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



269 



till September, before which time President Taylor died, on the 9th of July, 1850, 
leaving Fillmore as President. The bill was passed on the 9th of September, and 
signed by the President. It was generally opposed at the North, the fugitive slave law 

being everywhere bit- 
terly denounced, and 
its enforcement not 
only evaded but 
resisted, while Mr. 
Fillmore was bitterly 
assailed by his own 
party for giving it his 
approval. 

In the same year, 
1850, General Lopez, 
a native of Cuba, in 
violation of our neutral- 
ity laws, organized in 
the United States an 
expedition to aid the 
people of that island in 
a revolt against Spain. 
In the following year, 
landing in Cuba with 
four hundred and 
eighty followers, he was 
attacked, his forces dis- 
persed, and he and 
several of his followers 
were executed. France 
and England, getting 
the impression that the 
United States favored 
the annexation of Cuba, 
proposed that both those countries and this should, by treaty, bind themselves never 
to attempt the acquisition of that island. The Secretary of State, Mr. Everett, in a 
masterly paper, disavowed any such intention on the part of this country, but in 
accordance with the " Monroe Doctrine," said decidedly that the question was 
purely an American one, in which interference by any foreign government would not be 
regarded with indifference. 

Another event of interest was the fitting out, in 1 850, of two vessels by Mr. Henry 
Grinnell, of New York, for an expedition to the Arctic Ocean, for the discovery, if 
possible, of Sir John Franklin, who, six years before, had sailed for that region and of 
whom no tidings had ever been received. In 1853, our government sent out Dr. Elisha 
Kane with a party on a similar search. They suffered severely and had to abandon 
their ships, but were finally brought home in 1855. Franklin was never found. 




MILLARD KILLMORE. 



270 



OUR COUNTRY. 





FRANKLIN S EXPEDITION IN THE POLAR REGIONS. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



271 



In 1S52, difficulties arose with England as to the Newfoundland fisheries, and 
both that government and ours sent armed vessels to the region; but in 1854 the 
question was settled favorably to our claims by negotiation. During this administration 

three of our greatest 
statesmen died: John 
C.Calhoun in 1850, and 
Henry Clay and Daniel 
Webster in 1852. 

Pierce's Administra- 
tion — 1853 to 1857. 

The fourteenth 
President was Franklin 
Pierce, of New Hamp- 
shire, who was inaugur- 
ated March 4, 1853, 
with William King, 
of Alabama, as Vice- 
President. Mr. King 
took the oath of office 
in Cuba, where he had 
gone for his health, but 
on returning home he 
died on the i8th of 
April, 1853. Mr. Pierce 
was born in Hillsbor- 
ough, New Hampshire, 
November 23, 1804. 
He was educated at 
Bovvdoin college; after 
studying law, was 
admitted to the bar in 
1 827; was elected to the 
thirty-third Congress, and in 1837 to the United States Senate. He took an active part 
in the Mexican war and led his brigade in two important battles. 

This administration was marked by several events of interest, and by one of great 
importance connected with the matter of slave and free territory. As to one of the first 
mentioned events, a dispute had arisen with Mexico as to the boundaries of 
New Mexico, and Santa Anna, who was now President, sent an armed force to the 
disputed region. The matter was settled by what is known as the "Gadsden Purchase," 
by which the United States secured what are now parts of Arizona and New Mexico. 
This was in 1853, in wliich year eng'neers were sent to explore a route for railroad 
communication with the Pacific regions. In this year, too, Commodore Perry sailed 
with a squadron to Japan, and in the next year closed a treaty with that nation, by 
which two ports were opened' to American vessels. 

In 1853, the Crystal Palace was opened in New York for the "World's Fair," which 
had exhibits of all kinds from almost every civilized nation. There were also several 




FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



2/2 



OUR COUNTRY. 



"fillibustering" expeditions, led by General William Walker, against the governments of 
Central America; and also in the same year, against Lower California; in the next year, 
against Sonora in Mexico; and in 1855, against Nicaragua, where he made himself for a 
time president, but from which he was driven out in 1857. His last expedition was 
against Honduras, in i860, where he was captured and shot. 







*: \- 



W»£'- 



^^^^^^^f^^^^t'rA:^ 




MOUNT HOOD. 



Some difficulties again arising with Cuba, the President directed our ambassadors at 
London, Paris, and Madrid, to consult as to the best way of settling matters, and their 
advice, known as the " Ostend Manifesto," was to purchase the island, if possible, and if 
not, then to take it by force; but nothing further was done in the matter. With 
Austria, too, there was a difficulty as to one Martin Kotszta, who, having taken steps to 
become a citizen of the United States, was seized and put on board of an Austrian 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



273 



man-of-war. The American consul then demanded liis release, and when this was refused, 
Captain Ingraham, of the American sioop-of-war, cleared his vessel for action, and was 
about to open fire, when Kotszta was given up to the French consul and finally released 

and came back to his 
adopted home. 

The great question, 
however, of this admin- 
istration was connected 
with the matter of 
slavery. In 1854, 
Stephen A. Douglas, of 
Illinois, brought into 
the Senate a bill to 
organize the Territories 
of Kansas and Nebraska, 
containing the provi- 
sion that the people in 
them should decide for 
themselves whether 
slavery should be pro- 
hibited or not. It was, 
and was intended to be, 
a practical repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise 
of 1S20, which had for- 
ever prohibited slavery 
in that region. But it 
passed Congress, and 
became a law May 31, 
1854. The story of the 
struggle which followed 
is given in the history of 
Kansas, and the final 
result, which was not reached till 1861, was that Kansas was then admitted to the Union 
as a free State. The discussions connected with this subject led to the party lines 
of the next presidential election, the Republican supplanting the old Whig party, 
while the American or " Know-Nothing" party also arose, having for its main feature 
opposition to all foreign influence in the affairs of this country. 




JAMES BUCHANAN. 



Buchanan's Administration — 1857 to 1861. 

The fifteenth President of the United States was James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania. 
He was inaugurated March 4, 1857, with John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, as 
Vice-President. 

Mr. Buchanan was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in April, 1791. He was 
educated at Dickinson college; adopted the profession of law; in 1820 was elected to 

iS 



274 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Congress, where he served for five terms, wlieii he was appointed ambassador to Russia. 
In 1833 he was elected to the United States Senate, and in 1853 was sent as minister to 
England. He filled many important positions with ability, but at the outbreak of the 
war seemed irresolute and vacillating, when a decided policy might have led much earlier 
to the final result. 

In the first year of this administration the Mormons in Utah, under Brigham 
Young, their governor, opposed the federal courts and drove away the United States 
officials, and later in the year they attacked and destroyed a supply train of the United 
States troops, but an armed force being sent into their territory, and a new governor 




HARPERS FERRY, VIRGINIA. 



appointed, order was the next year restored. In 1858, the first Atlantic cable was 
successfully laid, and Minnesota became a State, as Oregon did in 1859, and Kansas, as 
a free State, in 1861. 

The great events of the administration, however, were connected with the questions 
of slavery and State rights, which led on to the War of Secession. The Dred Scott 
decision by the supreme court, denying freedom to one who, as a slave, had been taken 
by his master to a free State, and, asserting that such a person was not a citizen, and 
also that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and void, was the cause of 
intense excitement. It was welcomed at the South, but was most bitterly denounced at 
the North, and greatly increased the opposition between the two sections of the 
country. The bitter feeling it excited was intensified by the noted raid of John Brown, 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



275 



who seized the United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry, expecting to rouse the slaves 
of the Southern States to insurrection, but who was captured and hung in 1859. T^^^s 
struggle in Kansas was still in progress, and the violent attack in the Senate on Senator 
Sumner, of Massachusetts, by Butler, of South Carolina, after the former, in 1856, had 
made a strong anti-slavery speech, carried the public excitement at the North to the 
highest pitch. In this state of feeling, when the Democratic convention met in 
Charleston, in i860, to nominate a candidate for the coming presidential election, its 
delegates were divided, and part of them withdrawing and adjourning to Baltimore, 
nominated Stephen A. Douglas for the Presidency. The Republican convention, 
assembled in Chicago, took strong ground against the extension of slavery, and 
nominated as their candidate, Abraham Lincoln. 

The canvass that followed was one of intense earnestness and excitement, and 
resulted in the election of Lincoln, with Hamlin, of Maine, as Vice-President. The 

result of this election had been expected, 
for the South had proclaimed that if 
Lincoln was elected it would withdraw 
from the Union. Some members of 
Buchanan's cabinet were open friends 
of the Southern cause, and Buchanan 
himself, with a vacillation that was as 
weak as it was mischievous, while denying 
the right of secession, still said he had 
no constitutional authority or power to 
prevent it, thus virtually saying that the 
enemies of the Union would not be 
opposed by force. 

Encouraged by these views of the 
chief magistrate of the nation, it lias 
constantly been said that " the Southern 
States took immediate action for secession 
from the Union." But in point of fact jzot 
a single State, as a State, ever seceded. The 
political leaders of eleven Southern States^ 
gathered in convention between December 20, i860, and June 3, 1861, adopted 
ordinances of secession, declaring their States no longer in the Union. Each State was 
proclaimed to be a sovereign, and their papers referred to items of intelligence from the 
Northern States as "Foreign News." 

In February, 1861, delegates chosen in six States, by conventions, not by votes of 
the people, met at Montgomery, Alabama, and formed the league of the " Confederate 
States of America," which was a misnomer, as no States, as States, had withdrawn from 
the Union. The people — those who really composed the State — had never in any State 
been permitted to vote on the calling of cBnventions, or on the ratification of any ordinance 
of secession, or as to the formation of a Confederacy. As has well been said, " the 
leaders in the great insurrection dared not submit the question to the arbitrament of the 
people." The league formed at Montgomery was simply a compact between 
usurpers of popular rights, who were in no sense representatives of States. And it was 




A SKIRMISHER. 



276 



OUR COUNTRY. 



against the usurpers and their willing and unwilling instruments in making war on the 
republic, that the national government put forth its strength, and drew to its support 
the loyal citizens from every State in the Union. It was not a war between States, but 
a war against the enemies of the United States, who were in rebellion against it. 

Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was made President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of 
Georgia, Vice-President of the Confederacy thus formed, and the South at once began 
securing the national forts and arsenals within its borders. Major Anderson with his 
forces had gone from Fort Moultrie to P^ort Sumter, where Buchanan's administration 
made a weak attempt to reinforce him with men and provisions. On the morning of 
January 9, the Star of the West approached Fort Sumter in an attempt to deliver the 
supplies. A masked battery on Morris Island opened on her, and she ran up the 
stars-and-stripes. The battery paid no heed, but continued its fire several minutes 
longer. Fort Moultrie also sending in a few shots. The captain, seeing his danger, put 
to sea, and returned to New York. 

The admission of Kansas at this time, and the nearness of the new administration, 
increased the existing excitement. Threats were made that Mr. Lincoln would be 
assassinated on his way to the capital; but he passed through Baltimore, where 
violence had been feared, in the night, and arrived at Washington on the 23d of 
February, where he remained, till his inauguration. 




GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE's OLD HOME, ARLINGTON. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



^-77 




CHAPTER IV. 



THE CIVIL WAR AND EMANCIPATION. 



The Causes of the War. 

THE Civil War, or War of the Secession, began with the firing on Fort Sumter in 
April, 1861, and closed with the surrender of the Southern army in April, 1865, 
having lasted four years. The seeds of the conflict had been sown at an early 
day, in the views and occupations of the people, but the full fruit was slowly and at last 
fully developed. In a debate in the United States Senate, during the session of 
1829-30, Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, who became involved in a warm discussion 
with Senator Webster on the question of nullification, or whether a State had a right to 
annul an act of the general government, speaking of his own section, said, "They will 
look to the constitution ; and when called upon by the sovereign authority of the State 
to preserve and protect the rights secured to them by the charter of their liberties, they 
will succeed in defending them, or perish in the last ditch." To which Webster replied, 
" When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in Heaven, may I 
not see him shining on the broken and disfigured fragments of a once glorious Union ; 
on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on a land rent with civil feuds, or 
drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood. Let their last feeble and lingering glance, 
rather, behold the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout 
the earth. * *=!:** Liberty and union, now and forever, one and 
inseparable." Thus two great minds anticipated our Civil War thirty years in 
advance of its coming. 

Almost from the origin of the government, one class of statesmen had looked upon 
the Union as only a league or confederation, in which the States were bound together 
only by their own wishes and interests, while another class regarded it as one national 
government which could not be dissolved. One party exalted State rights, as if each 
State were a sovereign. The other gave supreme power to the Union, leaving to the 
States control over their State interests, while all the States were regarded as but parts 
of the one great Union. This, indeed, was a wide diff'erence of opinion, but so great 
was the love of country and the benefits of Union that probably it would never have 
led to the idea of separation but for questions connected with the business interests and 
material prosperities of the country. 

Such questions did arise and grew in importance as the country grew and 
prospered. The South having the advantage of slave labor, and raising crops which to 
a large extent were exported, and having comparatively few manufacturing industries, 

278 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



279 



wished for free trade with foreign countries. But the North being largely engaged in 
manufacturing, desired a protective tariff to enable them to compete successfully with 
foreign manufactures, and so to encourage and build up the manufacturing interests of 
this country. Connected with these different views was the great question of slavery. 
From an early day there had been slaves in the Northern States, the census of 1 790 
showing that there were 158 slaves in New Hampshire, 17 in Vermont, 952 in Rhode 
Island, 2,759 ^'^ Connecticut, 21,324 in New York, 11,423 in New Jersey and 3,737 in 
Pennsylvania; but the number was comparatively small and was steadily decreasing. 
In the South the cultivation of tobacco and rice had early made slave labor profitable, 
and the invention of the cotton gin by Whitney, in 1793, which soon made cotton the 
chief staple of the South, greatly increased the demand for slave labor, and so of 







A RAILROAD BATTERY. 



course added steadily to the number of slaves. In i860, the negroes of the South 
numbered some 4,000,000, while in the North, where slave labor was not profitable, 
slavery had gradually died out; and as the new States of the Northwest filled up with 
free settlers the Northern opposition to slavery steadily increased. Washington, 
Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin and Madison all saw and lamented the evils of the 
system, and Jefferson was the first one to bring forward the proposition that slavery 
should be prohibited in the great Northwestern territory. After 1808 the importation 
of slaves was forbidden, but as the value of slave labor increased the slaves also 
increased in numbers, and the South strongly advocated and maintained slavery, while 
in the North the abolition doctrine was steadily growing. 



28o 



OUR COUNTRY. 



These opposing interests and sentiments on the subject of slavery led to a long 
political struggle, the rapid increase of the population of the North tending to decrease 
the power of the South in Congress, and leading to the effort of the latter so to extend 
the borders of slavery as to hold their controlling political influence. The Missouri 
Compromise of 1820, the discussion of which agitated the whole country, had for a 
while settled the excitement, but after a time it proved unsatisfactory to both North 
and South, the former objecting to any increase of slaves and to the slave trade, and 
the latter being bent on extending its political influence by extending the system to the 
new territories which would soon become States. And then in addition to all this, what 
was known as the "fugitive slave law," which was enacted in 1850, wakened not only 
the opposition, but the deep indignation of the North. This was followed by the 
repeal of the "Missouri Compromise" in 1854. Then the Republican party was 
formed; then came the Kansas and Nebraska struggle; then the political campaign of 

1856, where the ques- 
tion of slavery was the 
avowed issue ; then in 
^V^ 1857, the "Dred Scott" 
i4,S " ^^^C decision; and then the 

^f John Brown raid ; of 

each of which events 

^ an account has been 

" given ; and then the 

= Presidential election of 

j*1fey i860, in which there 

were four candidates, 

and as the result of 

which Lincoln was 

elected. The election 

of Mr. Lincoln was the 



fe signal for action by the 
secessionists, South 
Carolina leading the 
movement. A conven- 
tion in that State passed 
an ordinance of seces- 
sion, December 20, 
i860, and this action was followed in January, 1861, by Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, 
Georgia and Louisiana, and in February by Texas ; and by the 15th of February the 
Confederate government was fully organized at Montgomery, Alabama, by the election 
of Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, as President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, 
as Vice-President. Here was the beginning of the great and terrible contest, which for 
four years convulsed the country, piled up a national debt of $2,749,000,000, and sent to 
the grave, or left as wounded and crippled, on both sides, more than one million of men. 




EARLY HOME OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, GENTRYVITLE, INDIANA. 



Lincoln's Administration — 1861 to 1865. 

The sixteenth President was Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, who was inaugurated 
March 4, 1861, with Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, as Vice-President. 

Mr. Lincoln was born in Kentucky, February 12, i8og, but when about seven years 
of age, went with his father to Indiana. In the rude life of that then comparatively 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



281 



unsettled country, he had ahnost no advantages for education. In 1830, he removed to 
IlHnois, where he was at various times a boatman, a farmer, and clerk in a store. At 
that time he was known as thoughtful and intelligent, and in 1834, was elected to the 

Legislature of the State. 
At this period, he acted 
for a time as a surveyor, 
occupying what leisure 
he could get in search- 



ingthe few books 
within his reach, often 
studying far into the 
night by the light of 
burning chips from the 
shop of a cooper. 
Three times he was 
elected to the Legisla- 
ture. In 1836, he was 
admitted to the practice 
of law. In 1846, he 
was chosen a member 
of Congress. In 1854, 
he had become a recog- 
nized leader of the 
Republican party, and 
by his political 
speeches, and especially 
by his public debates 
through the State, with 
Stephen A. Douglas as 
an opponent, had 
excited great interest 
not only in Illinois, but 
throughout the country. 
He was original in thought, of quick and searching discernment, and most genial in 
nature, and many curious and amusing anecdotes are related of his story-telling, his 
energy, his oddities, his generosity, his thorough honesty and independence, and his 
power as a debater. He was noted for his clear intellect, his sound judgment, and his 
unwavering will in all that he believed to be right. With all his fondness for comical 
anecdotes and stories, there was in his character a deep underlying seriousness, tinged 
with a sadness that was manifest to all who knew him. As to all his public duties, his 
feeling as well as purpose clearly was, as he once said, with regard to emancipation, 
" It is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this matter, and if I can learn 
what that is, I will do it." 

When he was chosen as President, to the friends who accompanied him to the 
depot as he left for Washington, he said, " I know not when I shall see you again. A 
duty devolves upon me greater than has devolved upon any man since the days of 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
[From first photograph taken after his nomination for President.] 



282 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Washington. He never would have succeeded but for the aid of divine Providence, 
upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same divine 
aid which sustained him, and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for 
support. And I hope you, my fi lends, will pray that I may receive that divine 
assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain." 

Of his well known and great speech at the Cooper Institute in the spring of i860, 
Horace Greeley said, "It is the very best political address to which I ever listened, and 
I heard 3ome of Daniel Webster's grandest. As a literary effort it would not of course 
bear comparison with many of Webster's speeches, but regarded simply as an effort to 
convince the largest possible number, that they ought to be on the speaker's side, and 
not on the other, I do not hesitate to pronounce it unsurpassed." 




FEDERAL IRON-CLAD RIVER GUN-BOAT. 



In his inaugural address, Mr. Lincoln declared that no State could withdraw from 
the Union, disavowed any intention to interfere with slavery, and proclaimed his 
intention to enforce the laws of the country and to retake and hold the public property, 
meaning the forts, arsenals, etc., that had been seized by the Confederates. This was 
taken by the secessionists to be a declaration of war, and they at once began organizing 
an army. 

Many Southern born ofificers of the army and navy of the United States, joined the 
Confederate service. General Beauregard was placed in command of the Southern 
forces, numbering about 4,000 men, who were then investing Fort Sumter in Charleston 
Harbor. That fort was at the time garrisoned by eighty men, under Major Anderson, 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



283 



and early in April, Lincoln resolved to send a fleet with supplies to them. As soon as 
this became known, Beauregard was ordered to demand the evacuation of the fort, and 
if the demand was not complied with, then to reduce it by force. The demand was 
made, and when refused by Major Anderson, fire was opened on the fort from batteries 
which had been erected, and the bom- 
bardment was kept up vigorously for 
thirty-four hours, at the end of which 

time the fort was surrendered and the / 

garrison came out with 
the honors of war on the 
14th of April. 




The attack on Fort Sumter produced 
the most intense excitement in every part 
of the country. It roused the North as by 
an electric shock, uniting all parties in the 
stern determination to uphold the suprem- 
acy of the government and the interests of 
the Union. The President at once issued a call for seventy-five thousand volunteer 
troops to serve for three months, and they were promptly raised at the North. And 
on the 19th of April one of the first raised regiments, the Sixth Massachusetts, passing 
through Baltimore, where the disunion sentiment was strong, was attacked and fired on 



THE SWAMP ANGEL. 



284 OUR COUNTRY. 

by the mob, and three of its members were killed and several wounded. The soldiers 
returned the fire, killing and wounding several of the assailants. This was the first 
bloodshed of the war, and it tremendously increased the excitement of both the North 
and the South. 

The secession authorities in the meantime had called for thirty-five thousand 
additional troops, which were promptly raised. At the surrender of Fort Sumter, only 
seven of the Southern States had been declared in secession, and eight other slave 
States, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri 
and Arkansas had not joined the secession movement, but were still hoping for peace. 
On these States the President called for its proportion of troops, but from all of them 
came defiant replies and refusal to respond to the call, and Virginia, Arkansas, North 
Carolina and Tennessee were soon declared to be in secession. In Delaware, Maryland, 
Kentucky and Missouri, there was strong opposition to the secession movement, and 
these States were still kept in the Union. The Confederate government was removed 
from Montgomery to Richmond. And war was now fully begun. 



Campaigns of 186 i. 

On the 1 8th of April the national forces at Harper's Ferry, finding superior 
Confederate forces approaching, evacuated the armory at that place, and on the 20th, 
when Norfolk was threatened, the Union troops withdrew, after setting fire to the 
buildings and ships; and the Confederates secured some two thousand cannon. Elated 
by this success, their cry was, " On to Washington," where they hoped to be able to take 
the capital. On the 3d of May the President called for 83,000 more soldiers to serve 
through the war. On the 23d, General Scott, as commander-in-chief, took possession of 
Arlington Heights and Alexandria. General Butler, with 12,000 troops, was at F'ortress 
Monroe ; General Patterson was at Harper's Ferry, and General McClellan, with a large 
body of troops, was in West Virginia. A blockade of the Southern ports had been 
declared by the President, and vessels were sent to enforce it. At this time the 
principal army of the Confederates was at Manassas Junction, under General 
Beauregard, and there were also forces at and near Yorktown, under General Magruder, 
to hold Butler in check ; and a force in the Shenandoah Valley, under General Johnston, 
was confronting the corps under Patterson, while there was also a Confederate force in 
West Virginia, to prevent or resist the advance of McClellan. 

The first conflict took place in West Virginia on June 3, and in it McClellan's forces 
were successful, the Confederates being driven back. On the nth of July the 
Confederates were again defeated by Rosecrans at Rich Mountain and at Cheat River; 
and again on the loth of August at Carnifex Ferry; and on the 14th at Cheat 
Mountain, results which secured West Virginia to the Union, and gave to the North 
control of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. These successes, though not of great 
magnitude or importance, encouraged the North and led to the appointment of 
McClellan as commander of the main army in Virginia. 

The Union forces now in West Virginia were about 30,000, and those of the 
Confederates about 10,000. General Butler in the meantime had attacked General 
Magruder and was repulsed at Big Bethel on the loth of June. General Lew Wallace 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



285 



successfully attacked the Confederates at Romney in West Virginia, and the movement 
being supported by General Patterson, the Confederates retired to Winchester, and the 
Union troops again took possession of Harper's Ferry. 

The two main armies now were the Northern, called the Army of the Potomac, of 
about 35,000 men, commanded by General McDowell, as General Scott was too infirm 
to take the field, and the Southern, called the Army of North Virginia, under General 
Beauregard. On the morning of Sunday, July 21, the Confederates were drawn up in 
three lines along the southern bank of Bull Run, watching the eight fords over which 
they expected the Unionists to come. 

Long before daylight on the hot Sunday morning, the Union army was astir, but 
the forenoon was half gone before the army was fairly started. Tyler's division 




ON THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD. 



followed the main road to the stone bridge, while Hunter and Heintzelman turned to 
the right and crossed the stream at Sudley Ford. 

Colonel Evans, holding the extreme Confederate left, had become suspicious, and 
marched up the stream with half a brigade, with which he confronted the Union 
advance while the turning column was beyond the turnpike. Instead of overwhelming 
this small force, McDowell sent detached regiments and brigades against it. Colonel 
Evans was thus enabled to hold his ground until heavily re-enforced, when he took a 
stronger position a short distance back. Hunter, re-enforced also, pressed Evans so 
hard that Generals Beauregard and Johnston hurriedly rode toward the scene of conflict 
to direct the movements of the troops. They ordered up all the reserves and formed a 



286 



OUR COUNTRY. 



new line of battle, with six thousand five hundred men, two companies of cavalry and 
thirteen guns. Near the center the Federal brigade, under Colonel Richardson, opened 
fire against Generals Jones and Longstreet at Blackburn's Ford, with a view of 
preventing them from re-enforcing the Confederate left, where Unionists were pushing 
hard. Longstreet, under orders from Beauregard, crossed the stream and assailed the 
Federals, thus preventing them from joining in the fight on the left. 

Although the fierce fighting at the center was for a time without any marked 
success on either side, it was on the whole favorable to the Unionists. Late in the 
afternoon, however, the Confederates were re-enforced by four thousand men, under 
General E. Kirby Smith, and Beauregard, who now found himself with more men than 




I'lN OF FORT OCRACOKE. 



the Unionists, directed an advance of the whole line, feeling sure of victory. The 
re-enforcements were placed in a position to the left of the Confederate line and swept 
like a cyclone against the exhausted Federals. Thus the seeming victory was turned 
into an utter rout, and a panic seizing the Union troops they fled, a discouraged mass, 
back to Washington, the Confederates losing in killed and wounded 1,900, and the 
Union forces in killed, wounded and prisoners, over 3,000 men. This first great battle 
of the war filled the South with enthusiasm and greatly disheartened the North. 
President Lincoln now called out half a million troops, and General Scott retiring from 
service. General McClellan was made commander-in-chief. By the fall of the year the 
Army of the Potomac numbered over 150,000 men, and the Southern army had larger 
additions, but the main armies did not again meet during the year. The only 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



287 




288 



OUR COUNTRY. 



operation in the East was an encounter of tlie opposing forces at Ball's Bluff, where the 
Union forces were repulsed with the loss of i,ooo men, and General Baker, their 
commander, was killed. 

At the West, military operations were chiefly confined to Missouri, where the 
Confederates, in two engagements, at Carthage and Wilson's Creek, were successful 
against the Union forces, and where, at Belmont, General Grant in November destroyed 
a secessionist camp, but was forced back to Cairo. In June, General Lyon gained a 
victory over the Confederates at Boonville, and in August, Generals Lyon and Sigel, 
with about 5,000 men, attacked a much larger force of the Confederates near Springfield 
and drove them from the field, but Lyon was mortally wounded in the conflict. The 




FORT PENSACOLA. 



Confederates, under General Price, with 25,000 men, laid siege to Lexington, which was 
garrisoned by less than three thousand Union men, and the place was taken by the 
Confederates, but soon was retaken by the Federal forces. Meanwhile General 
Fremont, who had been placed in command in Missouri, proclaimed martial law, and 
issued an order freeing the slaves of all who were in arms against the United States; 
but he was not sustained in this course by the President, who thought the step was 
premature, and he was superseded by General Hunter, who in turn was soon superseded 
by General Wallace. 

To keep up the blockade of the Atlantic coast and the Southern ports, several 
expeditions were undertaken during the year. The first was under General Butler and 
Commodore Stringham, who, acting together, in August took the forts at Hatteras Inlet 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



289 




290 OUR COUNTRY. 

on the coast of North Carolina. In June, a gun-boat expedition under Commander 
J. H. Ward, was repulsed at Matthias Point with severe loss. 

In October, a small expedition in row boats, under Lieutenant Harrill, left the 
Potomac at 2 A. M., and under cover of darkness proceeded up Quantico Creek, where 
it succeeded in burning a large schooner belonging to the enemy, and narrowly escaped 
under a heavy fire. Another small expedition from the frigate Colorado entered 
Pensacola harbor, and after a desperate fight, in which several men were killed and 
wounded, destroyed a large armed schooner. 

A second expedition under General Sherman and Commodore Dupont captured 
the works commanding Port Royal in South Carolina in November. The blockade was 
so vigorously enforced that it was difficult for any Confederates or any unfriendly vessel 
to enter or leave the Southern ports. 

A blockade-runner that did elude the United States vessels, had taken James M. 
Mason and John Slidell, who were on their way as Confederate ambassadors to England 
and France, both of which nations had in May recognized the Confederates as 
belligerents, not as insurgents. The British mail steamer on which they sailed was 
stopped, on the 8th of November, by the United States steamer San Jacinto, and 
Lieutenant Fairfax was sent on board with a demand to see the papers of the British 
steamer. Captain Moir refused to show them, or to allow his passenger list to be 
examined. Mr. Mason, however, was recognized, and Lieutenant Fairfax ordered a part 
of the crew of one of his armed boats to come aboard. Messrs. Mason and Slidell were 
then requested to accompany the Lieutenant back to the San Jacinto. They refused, 
and were forcibly taken away. The San Jacinto then proceeded on her way to the 
United States, and Mason and Slidell were imprisoned in Fort Warren. 

The greatest excitement was caused by the news of the occurrence, both in the 
United States and England. The British goverment demanded the surrender of these 
envoys, and in so doing virtually admitted the doctrine always asserted by the 
United States as to neutral vessels, the violation of which by England had been the 
chief cause of the War of 1812. The seizure of the envoys by Captain Wilkes was 
disavowed, and so a war with Great Britain was prevented, and the hopes of the 
Confederates that such a war might take place were disappointed. 



Camp.\igns of 1862. 

The military operations of 1862 began at the West, where the Confederate forces 
were under General Johnston, and those of the Union under General Halleck. In 
January, General Thomas successfully attacked the enemy at Mill Spring. In the next 
month General Grant left Cairo with about 17,000 men, in two divisions, accompanied 
by Commodore Foote with a naval fleet of seven gun-boats, four of which were 
iron-clads, for the purpose of reducing Fort Henry, a strong fortification of the enemy 
situated on the east bank of the Tennessee River, about sixty-five miles from its mouth. 
Foote began the bombardment of the fort on the afternoon of the 6th, Grant landing 
his troops for the purpose of investment and capture of the garrison, which 
numbered 2,700 men; but General Tilghman had already sent the garrison to Fort 
Donelson, which was only twelve miles away on the west bank of the Cumberland. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



291 



Tilghman himself remained with his artillerists, and defended the fort for about one 
hour, when, satisfied that his troops had escaped, he surrendered with lOO men and 
twenty pieces of artillery. 

February 12, General Grant put his army, now called the Army of the Tennessee, 
in motion for Fort Donelson, which was garrisoned by about 21,000 men, commanded 
by Jno. B. Floyd. After several severe engagements the fort was surrendered with 
about 9,000 men and a large quantity of stores on the i6th of February. When 
General Buckner, who, by the flight of Floyd and Pillow, had been left in command of 
the fort, asked what terms would be granted if he surrendered. General Grant replied, 
"Only an unconditional surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately on 




BAILEY S DAM ON THE RED RIVER. 



your works," and the surrender was made. The loss of these forts was a severe blow 
to the South, not only in the loss of men and guns, but because it opened up the 
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers and destroyed the whole defensive line of the 
Confederates. It compelled Johnston to abandon Kentucky and a large part of 
Tennessee, and as he retired to Murfreesboro, the Union army, under Buell, followed, 
and on the 23d took possession of Nashville. The capture of Fort Donelson not only 
broke the center of the defensive line of the Confederates, but also endangered its left, 
the stronghold at Columbus. This also they had to abandon, and it was occupied by 
the Union army on the 22d of March. These brilliant successes greatly encouraged 
the North. 



292 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Johnston now united all his forces at Corinth intending to strike a blow at Grant, 
who had moved to Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee river, where he was attacked by 
the Southern forces. The result was a severe battle at Shiloh, which lasted two days. 
At the opening of the battle, Grant was on the opposite side of the river in consultation 
with Buell. Hastening back, he came upon a field that appeared to be hopelessly lost. 
By noon the entire Union army had been driven out of their camps, and were huddled 
together on the verge of the bluff above the landing, where it looked as if there was no 
jDOssible escape. 

Before the Confederates could reach that part of the plateau where the Federals 
were, it was necessary for them to cross a deep ravine. A few unimportant earth works 
had been hastily thrown up on the opposite brink, and about fifty guns got into position. 







^>^'^^^^^^ 






U S MIIITARV IJLEGRAPH WAGON 



Two gun-boats were also stationed so that their fire swept the ravine. The Confederates 
charged down the bank and tried hard to dash up the other side, but the fire in front and 
from gun-boats swept them away like leaves from the path of a tornado. The attempt 
was finally given up and Grant was left master at that point. Still, the Confederates held 
the field. 

On the morning of the 7th the Federals moved forward to the attack and the battle 
opened all along the line. The enemy resisted in desperation but were continually driven 
back, and by 2 P. M. the Federals had recaptured their camps. The Confederates 
retreated to Corinth, and the Union victory was complete. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



293 



The Union loss was nearly 15,000, and that of the Confederates 10,699 in killed, 
-wounded and missing. The Northern forces pressing on, Corinth was evacuated by 
Beauregard, and was occupied by the Union army on the 30th of May. The 
Confederates thus retreating, several of their strong points on the Mississippi fell into 
the hands of the Union forces; Island No. 10 on the 7th of April; Fort Pillow on the 
4th, and the city of Memphis on the 6th of June. 

After the capture of Corinth, Grant's forces remained quiet for some time, and an 
army under Buell was sent to take Chattanooga, but his forces were attacked by the 
main Confederate army of the southwest, now under General Bragg, and obliged to 
retreat to Louisville. A column also under General Kirby Smith joined Bragg's army in 




FORT PILLOW. 



Kentucky, the joint forces overrunning the State and gathering vast quantities of 
supplies, but the Union army being largely re-enforced, Bragg and Smith retreated 
toward Chattanooga at the end of September, Buell's army pursued Bragg and an 
action was fought on the 8th of October without important results. Near the close of 
December, General Rosecrans, coming from Nashville, attacked Bragg at Murfreesboro, 
the action beginning in the morning and continuing with intermissions, for three 
successive days, the Union army holding the field and Bragg retiring to Duck river; the 
Union loss being some 14,000 and that of the Confederates over 10,000. While Bragg 
and Buell were thus in Tennessee, Grant was attacked at Corinth and luka by Price and 
Van Dorn, but as he was very strongly fortified their attack was in vain. Still earlier in 



394 



OUR COUNTRY. 




• THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 295 

the year a severe battle was fought at Pea Ridge in Arkansas, in which the Southern 
army under Van Dorn was defeated, March 7th and 8th, by the Union forces under 
General Curtis. 

Turning now to the Virginia campaigns, in the spring of 1862; McClellan was in 
chief command near Washington with 200,000 men ; and the Southern army under 
General Johnston, was still at Manassas Junction. On the 4th of April, the Army of the 
Potomac moving from Fortress Monroe, was brought to a stand by the fortifications at 
Yorktown, and in the delay Johnston with his army entered that place, but after a 
month spent by McClellan in erecting batteries before it, Johnston retired, going toward 
Richmond, and McClellan, after taking possession on the 4th, followed the retreating 
army, and an action took place at Williamsburg, from which Johnston made good 
his retreat. 

McClellan now advanced to the Chickahominy, where, on the last day of May, he 
was attacked by the enemy in the battle of Fair Oaks, when the advantage was with 
McClellan; and the Confederates retreating, and Johnston being wounded. General R. E. 
Lee took command of the army. 

McDowell's force was now at Fredericksburg, Fremont's was in southwestern 
Virginia, and Banks' in the Shenandoah Valley. Stonewall Jackson now struck a blow 
at Fremont causing him to retreat, and then at Banks, inflicting severe injury, thus 
obliging McDowell to leave Fredericksburg to oppose him. Jackson, then, on the 25th 
of June, moved upon the right flank of the Union army at Mechanicsville, and on the 
ne.xt day Lee, uniting with Jackson, attacked McClellan's army on the north side of the 
Chickahominy at Gaines' Mill, June 27, when the Union troops were driven from their 
position with heavy loss. McClellan's retreat was marked by three engagements at 
Savage's Station, June 29; at Glendale, June 30, and at Malvern Hill, July I, in the last 
of which Lee's army was repulsed. In these movements McClellan failed of his object, 
which had been to capture Richmond, but Lee's losses were about 20,000 in killed, 
wounded and missing, while McClellan's were only about 18,000. In July of this year, 
Lincoln called for 300,000 men, and in August for 300,000 more. 

McClellan having withdrawn to Harrison's Landing on the James river, Lee began 
moving toward Washington. Between him and the Potomac were about 50,000 men, 
made up of the forces that had been under Fremont, Banks, and McDowell, but all now 
united under General Pope. Lee pressed heavily on this force, and in the bloody second 
battle of Manassas, August 29th and 30th, it was entirely defeated. McClellan was now 
called back to Washington, and the broken army of Pope was united with his forces and 
all put under his command. Lee now marched to Frederick, and from there westward, 
leaving a force at South Mountain to hold the passes of the hills, and sending Jackson to 
capture the Union garrison at Harper's Ferry. McClellan, after a vigorous fight, carried 
the passes, September 14th, but before he could reach Harper's Ferry the garrison of 
12,000 men had been surrendered to Jackson, September 15th. Lee, on learning of 
McClellan's presence before the passes of South Mountain, had sent for Jackson. 
Knowing he would be assailed by the powerful army of McClellan, his purpose was to 
concentrate his forces and await the shock of battle. 

Jackson's division was so worn out that hundreds fell out by the wayside, so that 
only a part joined Lee on the i6th. His men had been pushed beyond their power of 
endurance, and he was forced to stop and wait for them to come up. His force at 



296 



OUR 'COUNTRY. 




THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



297 



Antietam, when about to give battle, was less than forty thousand muskets. When 
McClellan reached the other bank of -the Antietam he had 70,000 men. But McClellan 
was so tardy in his movements that he gave the enemy much advantage. Instead of 
attacking at once, he decided to wait till next day, and when the next day came, he 
thought best to wait until all his divisions had come up. 

After waiting until Lee had gained every advantage, McClellan prepared to attack 
him. The conflict raged all day, both armies being terribly shattered, but the Union 
army held its ground, and Lee was driven back and retreated up the Shenandoah Valley, 
and McClellan did nothing till November, when he moved to the east side of the 



blue ridge. 




ANTIETAM BRIDGE. 



McClellan was now superseded by General Burnside, who, with an army numbering 
about 1 10,000 men, moved to the Rappahannock opposite Fredericksburg, and at once 
began the construction of bridges at that point, and also lower down, toward the enemy's 
right, opposite Smithfield. Lee could not stop the Federals, and all his dispositions 
were with a view of attacking them after they had crossed. He so placed several regiments, 
however, as to harass them while making their way over. By daylight on the 13th, 
the Army of the Potomac was on the southern shore, and at the same hour the Army of 
Northern Virginia was gathered on the heights behind Fredericksburg. The fighting, 
which soon opened, lasted through the day, and ended with a loss of about 11,000 Union 
men and a Confederate loss of about 5,000. The Federal army had exhibited great valor 



298 



OUR COUNTRY. 



in this battle, advancing and retiring under the most terrible fire known in the war up to 
this time, and only fell back when it was found utterly impossible to proceed farther. 
On the morning of the i6th, when the enemy discovered the disappearance of the 
Federal army, they again extended their outposts to the town of Fredericksburg. 

Thus far in the year the results of the war in and about Virginia, were, on the whole, 
highly favorable to the Confederates, while at the West they were equally favorable to 
the Union army. 

The war was now waged on an enormous scale. Hundreds of thousands of men 
were on the field on both sides, North and South, carrying on the deadly conflict, on the 
one hand for the Union, on the other for the Confederate States. 




SINKING OF THE ALABAMA. 

In 1862, there were several important naval actions and events; one of which took 
place in Hampton Roads, where the steam frigates Minnesota and Roanoke, and the 
sailing frigates Congress, Cumberland and St. Lawrence lay at anchor. On the 8th of 
March the iron-clad Merrimac was sighted, and the Minnesota and Roanoke at once 
advanced to meet her, the former meaning to run her down, but both got aground. The 
Cumberland swung herself across the channel so as to bring her broadsides to bear; 
the Congress opened fire also, but with no effect ; the Merrimac moved straight on, 
firing as she approached, and striking the Cumberland a hard blow with her prow, 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



299 




30O OUR COUNTRY. 

opened a large hole in the side of the frigate. The crew of the Cumberland worked at 
the guns till the water was knee deep on her deck. She sank to her cross-trees in 
fifty-four feet of water, the stars-and-stripes still floating from her top-mast; 121 lives 
were lost. 

The Merrimac now turned her attention to the Congress, but could not approach 
within a considerable distance on account of shallow water. The field artillery and the 
infantry on shore took part in the fight, the artillery availing nothing; but the 
sharpshooters did some injury by firing at the port-holes of the Merrimac. The conflict 
continued for two hours, when the Congress was set on fire and her crew compelled to 
abandon her, having suffered a loss of 100 men. 

At daylight the next morning the Merrimac steamed out, an.xious to finish the work, 
but before she reached the helpless vessels the Monitor came out from behind the 
Minnesota and boldly advanced, firing the first shot when the Merrimac was only a 
hundred yards away. Many of the shots from the Merrimac passed over the low deck of 
the Monitor. The battle lasted four hours and ended in the defeat of the Merrimac, a 
shot from the Monitor having struck her below the water line and opened a bad leak. 
The Merrimac was compelled to retire to Norfolk, where two months afterward she was 
destroyed by the Confederates, to prevent her falling into the hands of the Union forces, 
who had then taken that city. 

On the Atlantic coast, too, Roanoke Island was captured by the Federal forces on 
the 8th of February. Newbern, by the Federal forces, under General Burnside and 
Commodore Goldsborough, was captured on the 14th of March, and St. Augustine, 
Fernandina and other places in Florida in the same month. In April, Fort Pulaski, at 
the mouth of the Savannah river, was taken by General Gilmore; and on the 21st of 
April, Fort Mason, in North Carolina, was surrendered to Commodore Goldsborough. 
In 1862, the commerce of the North suffered greatly from the Florida and Alabama, two 
Confederate cruisers, which had been built in Great Britain, and which had been suffered 
by the British authorities to be let loose for their destructive work. 



Campaigns of 1863. 

The first day of 1863 was forever made memorable by President Lincoln's 
emancipation proclamation, which declared freedom to all the slaves in the Confederate 
States. When the war began, it was with no thought on the part of the North of 
destroying slavery, though not a few thoughtful men foresaw what the end might be. 
But as the conflict went on, it came to be viewed as " a military necessity," as it certainly 
was a most effective blow to the power of the Confederate government. 

Lee's army was now at Fredericksburg, and the Army of the Potomac, now under 
General Hooker, was on the north side of the Rappahannock. In April, Hooker began 
his movement. A column of 36,000 marched thirty miles up the Rappahannock and 
crossed at Kelly's Ford, without opposition. The four corps took different roads to 
Chancellorsville. Sickels, with 18,000 more, was but a short distance behind. An 
excellent beginning had been made, and General Lee was taken by surprise. He did 
not know from what point the attack was likely to come, and it was not until the 
afternoon of the 30th that he was satisfied that the decisive struggle would be at 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



301 




>j 
i-i 

> 

< 
z 



a 
f- 



IIIIIIB 



■IMMiMJiB/ill 



302 OUR COUNTRY. 

Chancellorsville. Stonewall Jackson, who was twenty miles away, was ordered up, and 
before noon on May i, the Confederate army was drawn up in battle-line in front of 
the Wilderness. 

Hooker had ordered an advance from the neighborhood of Chancellorsville toward 
Fredericksburg, but learning directly after this that Lee was moving with his whole 
army against him, he posted himself in a line of felled trees and earthworks 
which he hurriedly strengthened during the night. His purpose was to choose 
his own fighting-ground, but Lee was too wary to be drawn into the trap. Hooker 
was trying to flank Lee, who resolved in turn that Hooker himself should be 
flanked. To do this, Lee was compelled to take desperate chances. He sent Jackson 
with 30,000 men to pass around the right rear of the Federal army, while Lee with only 
20,000 masked the movement by keeping up noisy demonstrations in front. By thus 
dividing his army he so weakened it that it would have been easy to crush each division 
in detail. 

Hooker did not realize the danger, and his weak intrenchments in the rear were 
unguarded. Howard's corps had stacked their arms, and were getting their suppers ready. 
Suddenly Jackson's men burst from the woods like a cyclone, sweeping everything before 
them. The whole corps broke in the wildest panic and fled toward Chancellorsville. At the 
same time, Lee was fiercely attacking the front, and it looked for a time as if the whole 
Union army would be stampeded. Hooker's plans had been so damaged that it was 
doubtful whether they could be rearranged. 

The battle was resumed on the 3d, the Federals being compelled to withdraw a mile 
toward the river. 

Hooker had been out-generaled and defeated on the 2d and 3d of May. On the 
5th, a violent storm set in. The Rapidan and Rappahannock rose rapidly and 
threatened the bridges at the fords, which were the only means of retreat left open to 
the Federals. Hooker decided to go back over the Rappahannock while he was yet able 
to do so, and preparations for the retreat were begun. On the morning of the 6th, the 
whole Army of the Potomac was across the Rappahannock and on its way to its old 
camp at Falmouth, having lost over 17,000 in killed and wounded. It was in this 
battle that Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded, through mistake, in the darkness, 
by one of his own soldiers. 

Lee, being now successful, resolved, for the second time, to invade the North, and 
calling in forces from the South so as now to have some 70,000 men, he moved to 
Harper's Ferry, crossed the Potomac, and advanced North on the Cumberland Valley, 
the Union army in the meantime marching to Frederick in Maryland, where Hooker had 
been superseded by General Meade. Lee's army took York and Carlisle, and the Union 
army marching against them the two armies met July i, in the tremendous battle of 
Gettysburg, the greatest conflict of the war, lasting through three successive days. 
Gettysburg lies in the middle of a small valley formed by several ranges of hills. To 
the north the country is not very rugged, but to the south, east, and vilest, the hills are 
steep and high. About a mile to the westward is a ridge fringing the east bank of 
Willoughby's Run ; and a quarter of a mile distant is another elevation called Seminary 
Ridge. The opening battle took place between these ridges. 

The Federal line of battle followed the ridge in the form of a horse-shoe, the 
convexity turning toward Gettysburg. The position was an extremely good one, and was 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



303 




BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE — JACKSON's ATTACK ON THE RIGHT WING. 



304 



OUR COUNTRY. 



held by a hundred thousand veterans and two hundred guns. The Confederates occupied 
Gettysburg and the country to the east and west. At the end of tlie second day matters 
were in an unsatisfactory shape for both sides. Lee had not failed, nor had he met with 
the success on which he had counted. He had gained some important advantages, but the 
Union line was substantially unbroken. The losses were fearful, amounting to more than 
twenty thousand on each side. 

On the morning of July 3, Meade opened a heavy fire, and sent a strong body of 
infantry against the Confederates. The latter, though outnumbered, held their ground 

for four hours, when they were driven out and the 
Federal line re-established. This disaster forced Lee 




VIEW FROM GETTYSBURG — WEST. 



to change his 

plan of battle. 

He hurriedly 

massed his 

artillery and 

made ready for 

a grand attack. 

By noon he had 

one hundred 

and forty-five 

cannon on Seminary Ridge, while Meade lined the crest of Cemetery Hill with eighty 

pieces of artillery. The cannonade lasted for two hours, during which the mountains and 

valleys seemed to sway with the most tremendous outburst that ever took place on the 

American continent. The Union fire gradually slackened, and the troops grasped their 

muskets for the more deadly shock which they knew was close at hand. From Seminary 

Ridge, a mile away, was seen to issue a column of five thousand men, marching with the 

steady and firm tread of a dress parade. They were the flower of the Southern army, 

under the lead of Major-General Pickett, and all had been tried in the fire of manj' battles. 

Half the distance between the two armies was passed when the Union artillery burst 



THE ADMINISTRATIOXS — CIVIL WAR. 



305 




3o6 



OUR COUNTRY. 



forth and swept away scores, but the Hnes instantly dosed up. The Federals then 
waited until the gray coats were within short musket range, when the crest of the hill 
became one sheet of flame, and a hurricane of bullets flew in the very faces of the 
Confederates. Pettigrew's division which was supporting Pickett, was driven backward, 
leaving two thousand prisoners and fifteen standards with the Union army. Wilcox's 
supporting brigade had fallen behind. Pickett and his heroes rushed up the 
crest of Cemetery Ridge and captured the works at the point of the bayonet; 
but a converging fire was poured upon them and they were attacked in front 




GETTYSBURG FROM LITTLE ROUND-TOP — EAST. 



and flank. Looking around for his supports, Pickett saw that he was alone, and that 
a few minutes more would be enough for the destruction of his command. The order 
was given to fall back, and "all that was left of them" withdrew. Of the five thousand 
who advanced with such proud bearing upon that wonderful charge, thirty-five hundred 
were killed, wounded, or prisoners in the hands of the Union army. 

General Lee now realized that he had begun a task he could not perform. The Union 
forces were too strong to be defeated, and nothing remained for him but to leave the 
country where nothing could be gained and all might be lost. By the morning of the 
5th, he was on his way back to Virginia. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



307 







I S 



3o8 



OUR COUNTRY. 



The battle of Gettysburg was the life and death struggle of the Southern 
Confederacy ; it had been fought, and the Confederacy was defeated, and was now 
doomed. It never could be so strong as it was before Gettysburg; its utmost resources 
had been drawn upon, while those of the North were strong as ever. 

In the West, at the beginning of the year, there were two Union armies; one, the 
Army of the Cumberland, under Rosecrans, opposed by the Confederates under Bragg, 
near Murfreesboro, and the other, the Army of the Tennessee, under Grant, at Memphis 
and Corinth, opposed by the Confederates under Pemberton, holding the line of the 
Tallahatchee. The great object of Grant, was fully to open the Mississippi river, which 
could be effected if Vicksburg and Port Hudson could be taken. In 1862, Sherman had 
assaulted the works north of Vicksburg, but they had proved too strong to be taken. 
Grant now crossed the river to the north of city, and adopted the bold plan of marching 
below Vicksburg, and then crossing the river to attack the city in the rear, which he 
successfully carried out. In making this movement, he five times met and defeated the 
Confederates under Pemberton, who then retreated to his works in Vicksburg, to which 




1 i 



LONGSI'REET'S arrival at liKACU'S HEADQUARTERS. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



309 



Grant now laid siege. The siege lasted for six weeks, at the end of which time 
Pemberton surrendered on the 4th of July, with 27,000 troops, who were thus 
taken prisoners. 

By the surrender of Vicksburg, the Confederacy lost the services of more than 
20,000 men, nearly a hundred pieces of artillery, and 40,000 small arms. In his report, 
Grant thus summed up the results of the campaign : " The defeat of the enemy in five 
battles outside of Vicksburg, the occupation of Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, and 
the capture of Vicksburg, its garrison and munition of war; a loss to the enemy of 37,000 
prisoners, at least 10,000 killed and wounded, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, who can 
never be collected and re-organized. Arms and munitions of war for an army of 60,000 





FEDERAL LINES AT CHATTANOOGA. 



men have fallen into our hands, beside a large amount of other public property, and 
much that was destroyed to prevent our capturing it." 

While Grant was thus engaged at Vicksburg, Banks, who had succeeded Butler in 
command of the Army of the Gulf, laid siege to Port Hudson, and as that could not hold 
out after Vicksburg was taken, it was surrendered on the 9th of July, and so the 
Mississippi was opened through its entire length. These successes, taking place at the 
same time as the decisive battle of Gettysburg, caused great rejoicing at the North, and 
gave encouraging promise of final success to the Union armies. The Army of the 
Cumberland, which had remained at Murfreesboro till June, then moving south, had 
several partial and successful actions with Bragg's forces, and then after taking 



;io 



OUR COUNTRY. 



possession of Chattanooga, engaged the Confederates in the great battle of Chickamauga, 
which was fought on the 19th and 20th of September. The Union forces were beaten, 
but under General Thomas they fought so stubbornly that in retiring they fortified 
themselves in Chattanooga. There they were besieged by Bragg's forces, and in danger 
of beincr starved into surrendering, when Sherman from Vicksburg, and Hooker from 
Virginia, came to their aid, and Grant, being put in command of all the forces, moved to 
Chattanooga, the siege of which was raised by the great battle of November 23-25, at 
Lookout Mountain and on Missionary Ridge. 

On the evening of the 23d, the Confederate picket lines were driven back, and a good 
position gained by the Federals. The ne.xt morning Hooker was sent to assail the 
position on Lookout Mountain. The Union flag was carried to the crest, and by two 
o'clock the mountain swarmed with Federal 
soldiers. The Confederates retreated toward 
Missionary Ridge, having lost 2,000 prisoners. 

The heavy fog lying below the soldiers 
gave this engagement the name of the 
"Battle above the Clouds." 
The next morning Grant 
ordered a general move- 
ment on the left center of 
the Confederates. The 
resistance here was of the 
most determined char- 
acter, but it was the one 
weak point, and a whole 




MOIST WEATHER AT THE FRONT. 



vision of Hindman'sline 

ave way ; the Federals 

ressed forward into the 

enches, and the routed 

ne retreated in disorder 

toward Ringgold. A vast number of 

prisoners and an enormous amount of 

supplies were taken. 

As the next step, Sherman was sent 
by Grant to East Tennessee, where 
Longstreet had succeeded in shutting 
up Burnside's army in Knoxville. 
As the result of this movement, 
Longstreet retreated to Virginia and 
East Tennessee, the population of 
which was largely Unionist, and was 
afterward held permanently for the 
Union cause. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



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112 



OUR COUNTRY. 



There were several other operations this year, not on a large scale, and not ensuring 
very important results. On the 8th of January the Confederates attacked Springfield 
in Missouri, and were repulsed. On the nth, they were defeated at Hartsville; in 
April, they were driven back from Cape Girardeau; and in July, they were repulsed 
with heavy loss from Helena, Arkansas. In August, a band of guerillas fell upon 
Lawrence in Kansas, and murdered a hundred and forty people. In September, the 
Uni6n forces took Little Rock, from which the Confederates were obliged to retreat; 
and in June of this year, the Confederates, under General Morgan, with 3,000 men, 
started from Tennessee, raiding Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio nearly to Pennsylvania, 
where at New Lisbon they were captured by the Union forces and scattered or 
taken prisoners. 




FAIRFAX COURT HOUSE. 



As to naval matters, in April, Admiral Dupont, with a fleet of iron-clads, made an 
unsuccessful attempt to capture Fort Sumter and Charleston, but his vessels were so 
damaged by heavy shot that he was obliged to retire. In June, the attempt was 
renewed by General Gilmore and Admiral Dahlgreen, but without success ; and an 
attack in July on Fort Wagner was repulsed with severe loss. But afterward, in 
September, Gilmore, with very heavy guns, battered Fort Sumter into ruins, and threw 
shells into Charleston, after which the national forces were able to keep a closer 
blockade on the harbor. 

In June, of this year, the President had called for 100,000 men, and in October, he 
called for 300,000 under the Conscription Act, which had been passed by Congress in 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 313 

March. This act led to the great riot in New York, commencing on the 13th of July 
and lasting three days, in which over 200 lives were lost, some $2,000,000 worth of 
property destroyed, and the city kept in terror for several days. At the close of the 
year the Union forces held possession of the Mississippi river, of Missouri, Arkansas, 
Kentucky, and Tennessee, and of large parts of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida. 
West Virginia, which had repudiated the secession, which extended to the rest of 
Virginia, was admitted to the Union this year, as a new State, on the 20th of June. 



Campaigns of 1864. 

The two main campaigns of 1864 were by Grant in the East, and Sherman in the 
West. Grant having been made lieutenant-general and commander of all the armies, 
'transferred his headquarters to the Army of the Potomac, which was still under Meade, 
while Sheridan was in command of the cavalry. Lee, with some 70,000 men, was still 
at the Rapidan, and on the 4th of May the Army of the Potomac of 140,000 men, 
crossing the river, met the Confederates in the bloody battle of the Wilderness, which 
lasted three days without decided victory on either side, and a loss on both of some 
25,000 men, in killed, wounded and prisoners. 

Grant now moved toward Spottsylvania Court House, but Lee moving more rapidly 
planted his forces there behind earthworks. For two weeks Grant tried to carry these 
works, the fighting beginning on the 9th and continuing to the I2th of the month, with 
great slaughter on both sides; though the Confederates, protected by their earthworks, 
lost far less than the Nationals. The only important success of the latter was by 
General Hancock, who took part of the Confederate lines and captured some 4,000 
prisoners. It was from the scene of this fierce and continued conflict that Grant sent 
to Washington his famous dispatch, " I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes 
all summer." 

Grant, now, by a first and then a second movement, brought his forces to Cold 
Harbor, twelve miles from Richmond, and here made several attacks on the Confederate 
intrenchments, the severest assault being on the 3d of June, when the Nationals were 
repulsed with the loss of 7,000 men. Grant then made a change of base, crossing 
James river and moving on Petersburg. Lee also fell back within the intrenchments of 
Richmond and Petersburg. These various movements and engagements, making what 
is known as the "Overland Campaign," occupied six weeks, and cost the Union army 
60,000 men, while the Confederate loss was only about a third of that number, the 
Union forces being brought up against the strong works of Richmond and Petersburg. 

While all this was going on in Virginia, two co-operative movements were begun, 
one by Sigel in connection with Hunter, down the Shenandoah Valley, where they met 
the Confederate forces and were defeated; after which Hunter marched against 
Lynchburg, but failed to take it, and then retreated to West Virginia. 

The other was a column led by Butler, in transports, up the James river to City 
Point and Bermuda Hundred, his object being to join Grant and take Petersburg before 
it should be strongly fortified. Accordingly, the place was assaulted on the 18th of 
June, but the attack was repulsed, as were several other attacks made within a few days. 
Lee's lines now extended some thirty miles from the southwest of Petersburg to the 



314 



OUR COUNTRY. 



northeast of Richmond, and Grant preparing an elaborate system of works, sat down 
for a long siege, which lasted from June 1864 to April 1865, in which time there were a 
number of actions and several important battles, but without any great and decisive 
combat. One operation from which much had been expected, was the explosion of a 
vast mine of powder which had secretly been excavated under the forts of the enemy. 
It was fired on the 30th of July, carrymg >■- ,. i " %\ ^' <■ 

all the works over it into the air, and 
destroying several thousand men. 



after which a storming column rushed 
on to attack Petersburg, but was 
repulsed with great slaughter. 

In July, Lee sent a column under 
General Early, to threaten, 
and if possible 
capture Wash- ' 
ington, hoping 



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EXPLOSION OF MINE BEFORE PETERSRUKG, 



thus to diveit Grant from 
the siege of Petersburg. 
Eaily crossed the Poto- 
mac and defeated the 
Nationals under Lew 
Wallace at Monocacy, but 
finding that additional 
troops had been thrown 
into Washington, he went 
back to Virginia, taking 
much booty from Mary- 
land and Pennsylvania, and having 
bui ned Chambeibburg on the 30th of 
July. A force of some 30,000 had, 
in August, been sent by Grant to 



THE ADMINISTSATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



315 



follow Early into the Shenandoah Valley; and to command it, he sent Sheridan, who, in 
the battle of Winchester, defeated the Confederates on the 19th of September, and 
again, in three days after, at Fisher's Hill. The National forces, after ravaging the 
valley, took a position on Cedar Creek, and Sheridan left for a time, being called to 
Washington. Early, being reinforced, fell suddenly on the Union camp, on the 
19th of October, and had driven them as far as Middletown, when Sheridan, who, on 
his way back had heard the fighting, rode rapidly to the front, rallied the retreating 
forces, and led them back to victory in one of the most brilliant actions of the war, in 
which Early's army was scattered with great losses. 

In May, Sherman, commanding the 
western army, began a march 
Chattanooga to Atlanta in Georgia, 
as he advanced, Johnston, who was 
at Dalton, was obliged to leave 
position after position, finally 
retiring within the works of 
Atlanta, in July. During 
this march, several actions 
took place between the two 
forces, — at Resaca, May 14 




GENERAL SHERMAN S SCOUTS. 



3i6 



OUR COUNTRY. 



and 15; at Dallas, May 25-2S; and at Kenesaw Mountain, June 22 to July 3. 
Johnston's retreating policy greatly dissatisfied the Confederate authorities, and he was 
superseded by General Hood. Hood made three vigorous assaults on Sherman's 
forces, July 20, 22, and 28, but they were not successful, and Sherman getting between 
Hood and Atlanta, occupied that city, September 2. Hood now endeavored to cut off 
Sherman's supplies, that he might compel him to move back, but Sherman sent 
Thomas with a large force to oppose Hood, while he himself, in the meantime, was 
preparing for his intended march southward and eastward to the sea. 

Hood now advanced his forces, '*i., 

hoping to capture Nashville, on his W % ''^^^-.4^ 

he ^ _ -- -i-v ~ ^--^-^ 

of '--"° 



way to which place 
encountered the forces 







DEATH OF GENERAL POLK 



Schofield, and 
an action took 
place, Novem- 
ber 30, in 
which Hood 
was severely repulsed with a loss 
of several of his officers. The 
Confederate forces now laid siege to 
Nashville, where they were attacked 
by Thomas, December 15 and 16, 
Thomas gainmg the victory, and 
Hood's forces suffering severely. 
In the meantime, Sherman, cutting off his 
communications with the North, and burning 
Atlanta, began his celebrated march through 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



3'7 



Georgia, intending by moving through the interior of the Confederacy to destroy 
their supplies and so cut off the means of sustaining their armies. Starting from 
Atlanta in the middle of November, he pressed on, three hundred miles, through a 
hostile country, meeting with no serious resistance, and in a month reached the sea 
coast near Savannah. For thirty miles on each side of his course he wasted the country, 
carried off what supplies he wished, and destroyed what he could not use. He tore up 
the railroads, proclaimed liberty to the slaves, many of whom joined his forces, and 
made the Confederates feel that their power was rapidly declining. The only obstacle 
of importance in his way was Fort McAllister, which he took by assault, December 13; 




SAVANNAH. 



and marching on, he put the army in communication with the fleet off the coast, 
and took Savannah, December 31, thus ending this important campaign. 

Beside the two main campaigns of the year, there were other operations of the 
opposing forces. Seymour making an expedition from Port Royal to Florida, was 
defeated, February 20, by the Confederates at Olustee; and Sherman, before he went to 
Chattanooga, going from Vicksburg to destroy the railroads in northern Mississippi, was 
but partly successful. Forest defeated his cavalry column, and then attacked and 
captured Fort Pillow, which was garrisoned mostly by negro troops, many of whom 
were massacred. Banks, in March, led an expedition from New Orleans into the 
Red River region, in Louisiana, being aided by the fleet under Admiral Porter. Two 
actions were the result, one at the Sabine Cross Roads, April 8, in which the 



3l8 OUR COUNTRV. 

Confederates were victors, and the other at Pleasant Hill, which was indecisive, after 
which the expedition was given up. 

In naval operations in July a powerful fleet under Admiral Farragut, with a land 
force under General Granger, was sent against Mobile, which was defended by 
Forts Morgan and Gaines, and by a Confederate fleet. Farragut passed the forts with 
the loss of only one vessel, and engaged and captured the Confederate iron-clad, the 
Tennessee; and the combined Union forces afterward took the forts, and so got control 
of Mobile Bay, though the city itself was not taken till the spring of the next year. 
A similar expedition was made against Fort Fisher at the entrance to Wilmington, 
North Carolina, Admiral Porter with the fleet, and General Butler with the land forces, 
attacking the fort in December. The assault was a failure, and the land forces returned 
to Fortress Monroe. But the fleet remained and the Fort was taken by General Terry 
on the 15th of the next month. 

Immense loss was this year caused to American commerce by Confederate cruisers, 
which had been built in England, and were now acting as privateers against the North. 
The most destructive of these vessels was the Alabama, commanded by Captain Simms, 
which captured and destroyed over sixty northern vessels and $10,000,000 worth of 
property. In a naval battle off Cherbourg, France, the Alabama was captured by the 
United States vessel Kearsarge, Captain Winslow, and was sunk in June. In October, 
Lieutenant Gushing, with a party of volunteers, by a daring and brilliant exploit, 
attacked the Confederate iron-clad Albemarle, in the Roanoke river, and destroyed her. 
He fastened a torpedo to the Albemarle, which exploded and sunk her, but only he and 
a single companion escaped with their lives. 

James I. Waddell, captain of the Shenandoah, was the only sailor who carried the 
flag of the " Lost Cause " around the world. In 1864, he made nine captures in the 
Atlantic and then sailed for the sea of Okhotsk. He ran down the Abigail, a whaling 
brig owned in New Bedford, and then steered for a fleet of New England whalers in the 
Behring Sea. For six months the steamer was dodging the icebergs, battling the sleet 
and snow, and burning the whaling vessels to the water's edge. At the end of that 
period the Shenandoah had made thirty-eight captures, wrecked the New England fleet, 
taken 1,053 prisoners, and inflicted damages to the amount of a million and a half dollars, 

In those far-off waters no news could reach Waddell from home, and it was not until 
August 2, that he learned that the Confederacy had been dead for months, during which 
time he had been wrecking right and left in the face of the proclamation that all found 
in arms against the United States would be treated as outlaws. He sailed for Liverpool, 
and after escaping several times by a hair's breadth the Federal cruisers that were 
hunting for him, he ran into the Mersey, and surrendered to the Queen, November 
S, 1865. 

He settled near London for a time, but afterward accepted a captaincy under the 
Pacific Mail Company. After several year's service he took a contract from the State of 
Maryland to suppress the pirates on her oyster beds. With a small police boat, manned 
by a crew of ten men and two howitzers, he steamed after his game. He fell in with a 
fleet of the oyster thieves, above the mouth of the Honga river. When he called on 
them to surrender, they laughed at him. He sank one boat, drove three ashore, captured 
three, and the rest escaped by flight, thus ending the oyster war in less than half 
an hour. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



3'9 




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OUR COUNTRY. 



During the year five different calls were made by the President for additional troops ; 
in February, for 200,000; in March, for 200,000; in April, for 85,000; in July, for 
500,000; and in December, for 300,000. In the fall of the year Abraham Lincoln was 







END OF THE OYSTER WAR. 



j# re-elected President, and Andrew 

»^3:'., Johnson was elected Vice-President. 

In October, of this year, Nevada was 

admitted as a State into the Union, 

and on the ist of November the 

" Money Order " system was established in connection with the post office 

department of the government. The year was one of marked success for the Union 

cause, and the end of the war was manifestly drawing near. 



The Final Campaign — 1865. 

Such was the situation at the opening of 1865, that it was believed the war must 
soon come to an end. A strict blockade shut out the South from the markets of Europe. 
Her supplies of arms and ammunitions were running low, and even if she could find 
men enough to resist the North, she could not equip or fully provide for them. Food 
was becoming scarce. In Lee's army the pangs of hunger had been felt, and elsewhere 
through the South there was not a little suffering with those who liad once been rich. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



321 




THE PEACE COMMISSIONERS. 



322 



OUR COUNTRY. 



The soldiers were insufficiently supplied with clothing, and as winter came on, so many 
of them deserted and left for home that punishment was impossible. The North had a 
million of men in the field, and nearly six hundred vessels of war, seventy-five of which 
were iron-clads, and she had full command of everything that could give comfort and 
efficiency to her soldiers, while the rolls of the Southern army showed only four hundred 
thousand men, and from desertion and other causes, large numbers of these were not 
actually in the ranks. 

While the money resources and credit of the North seemed almost unlimited, in the 
South it had become impossible to borrow at home, and the supply by loan from abroad 
was as nothing to the great and increasing need. Confederate notes or promises to pay 
were printed as fast as machinery could do it, but they 
steadily fell in value, three paper dollars being required fg'T 
in 1863 to purchase one of gold, while after the battle of ^^^ ' 





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ruE FUG OVER FORT SUMTER. 



^^: 



■Bi Gettysburg it took twenty, and somewhat 

'^ZT later sixty to obtain one in coin. A loaf of 
bread cost three dollars, and it took a month's pay 
to buy the soldier a pair of stockings. A touching 
weakness appeared in the fact that the government appealed to the people for 
jewelry and plate, and that the Richmond papers published lists of gold rings, silver 
spoons, and tea-pots, which, in the hopeful enthusiasm of the givers, were sent in aid of 
the depleted treasury. And when iron-clad ships were needed, and iron was scarce, an 
association of ladies, it is said, was formed to collect old pots and pans to be used for 
their construction. Brave as their soldiers were, and skillful and tireless as their leaders 
might be, it seemed hopeless for the South to think of success against the resources and 
resolute determination of the North. 

Mr. Lincoln, as we have seen, was re-elected, and by the largest vote ever known in 
a presidential election. " It is not in my nature," he said, " to triumph over any one. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



323 



but I give thanks to Almighty God for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by 
free government and the rights of humanity." He was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 
and his address was brief, but high toned and most serious, and one that probably produced 
a deeper impression on the American people than any State paper ever delivered. 




-- "--L^^^__^ =: In closing it, he uttered these 

''S'^s^y;;; a=gffl;-^-''^ memorable words, which have almost 
the ring of one of the old prophets of 
Sg^CT ^^^g Israel : " Fondly do we hope, fervently 
do we pray, that this mighty scourge of 
war may speedily pass away ; yet it God 
wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty 
years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash 
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword — as was said three thousand years ago — 
so still it must be said ' The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' 
With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives 
us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the Nation's wounds, to 



324 



OUR COUNTRY. 



care for him who shall have borne brunt of the battle, and for his widow and his 
orphans; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among 
ourselves, and with all nations." 

Sherman had now almost destroyed the Western army of the Confederates, and by 
his triumphal march and success at the South he had paralyzed opposition in that 
quarter. The only formidable army of the Confederates now was that of Lee with his 
veterans, but this consisted of less than forty thousand men, while Grant's army was 
one hundred thousand strong. To join Grant, Sherman had turned north from 
Savannah, February i, and on the 17th captured Columbia, which was set on fire by the 
Confederates before they left it. On the next day he entered Charleston, which had 
been evacuated by General Hardy after setting fire to its buildings, and though the 
flames were checked by the Federal troops after they entered, it was not till great 
damage had been done and an explosion of a large quantity of powder had killed two 
hundred men. 




SUN'SET OVER ATLANTA. 



Advancing north. General Sherman was joined by General Slocum, and on the 
nth of March he occupied Fayetteville. On the i6th, he had an engagement at 
Averasboro with the Confederate forces of forty thousand men under General 
Hardee, which resulted in a Federal victory. On the 19th, he had a severe conflict at 
Bentonville which was not decisive. On the 23d, he entered Goldsboro, where he was 
re-inforced by Generals Schofield and Terry with their troops. On the 13th of April, he 
engaged Johnston at Raleigh, taking and entering that city: and on the 26th, Johnston, 
who had heard of Lee's surrender, finding that further resistance was hopeless, 
surrendered his army to the Federal forces. 

General Wilson in the meantime, with a cavalry column had captured Selma and 
Montgomery in Alabama, and also Columbus and Macon in Georgia, taking many 
prisoners and cannon, and doing great damage to Confederate property; and General 
Stoneman, in Virginia and North Carolina, had torn up miles of railroads and captured 
many prisoners and valuable military stores. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



325 



The main armies of the North and South were still at Petersburg and Richmond, 
■where Sheridan, after capturing most of Earley's remaining force in the Shenandoah 
Valley, had swept down to the James river, tearing up railroads and destroying the canal, 
and then joining Grant's forces. Lee, though now surrounded by overwhelming 
numbers, planned an assault on the Union lines, in which, on March 25, he took Fort 
Steadman, from which, however, he was soon driven out. Grant now assailed the right 
flank of the Confederates, which brought on the battle of Five Forks, April i, in which 
the Confederates were defeated. An attack was then made, April 2, along the whole line 




ON PICKET — "who goes THERE?" 



326 



OUR COUNTRY. 



of the Confederates, in which the Nationals ^_^ 
were successful, and Lee, in the night, 
abandoned Petersburg and Richmond, which 
were entered by the Union forces on the 
3d of April. -f, 

Lee now retreated westward hoping to ^ 
join Johnston in North Carolina, but he wi- "^ 
at once pursued by Grant's forces, 
and all hope of retreat being cut ^,' ..^;: 
off and his army being completely , j^-|g>4j;i^^ 
surrounded at Appomattox Court ''-~^; 
House, he was 
obliged to sur- 
render, which 
he did on the_ 
9th of April. — 




He had strug- 
gled bravely but 
in vain against 



overwhelming 







RETREAT OF LEE S ARMY. 



J21 numbers and 
forces, and the 
last hope of success for the 
Confederates was overthrown. 
Appreciating the desperate 
condition of affairs, Lee saw 
tint there was but one pos- 
sible course before him, and 
accordingly the two great lead- 
ers met, and Grant received 
fiom Lee the surrender of the 
army under his command. 

By the terms of surrender 
Lee's officers and men were 
paroled and were not to 
take up arms again unless 
exchanged, and the arms, 
ammunition and supplies of 
the Confederates were also 
given up to the conquerors. 
This was the conclusive act 
of the war, and there were no 
more important engagements. 
When Grant asked if these 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



327 




328 



OUR COUNTRY. 



terms were satisfactory, Lee replied that they were, adding that " his position was such that 
any terms must be satisfactory ;" and as showing the sad condition of his forces, he then 
said that for two days his men had been without food, when Grant, generously eager at 
once to relieve their wants, sent to them a large drove of oxen and a train of provision 
wagons, which were received with cheers by those who appreciated the noble spirit of 
the giver. By the end of May all the Confederate forces had surrendered, and the war 
of secession was at an end. 

The President and cabinet of the Confederate government had before this retired 
from Richmond, and Jefferson Davis had fled south by a special train, but he was 




THE HOUSE WHERE GENERAL LEE SURRENDERED. 



captured and imprisoned in Fortress Monroe till May, 1867, when he was indicted on the 
charge of treason; but bail being given, he was never brought to trial, but was afterward 
included in the general amnesty of December 25, 1868, the nation thus showing its desire 
that the antagonisms of the war should come to an end, and the country again be at 
peace as one people. When Richmond was abandoned, just before Lee's surrender, the 
evacuating Confederates, plundering as they went, blew up the gun-boats, broke down 
the bridges, and set fire to the great warehouses, so that by the flames thus kindled 
a third part of the city was destroyed. The next morning when the Northern troops 
came in, the first to enter the capital of the former slave owners was a regiment of 
negro cavalry. 



THK ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



329 



The surrender of Lee and the end of the rebeUion caused the greatest joy 
throughout the North, but in the midst of it a most sad and terrible event occurred. 
President Lincoln was assassinated in the theater at Washington on the evening of 
April 14, by John Wilkes Booth, a fanatical adherent of the Confederacy, who, entering 
the box where Mr. Lincoln was seated, with the wild cry "The South is avenged!" fired 




THE CAPTURE OF BOOTH. 



a pistol shot into the President's brain, and then escaped by a back entrance before 
the startled audience fully realized what had been done. Mr. Lincoln died the 
next morning. 

The same night another villain entered the sick-room of Mr. Seward, the Secretary 
of State, and stabbed, and would have killed him had he not been prevented, the 
different attacks giving the impression that a plot had been formed to murder the leaders 



330 



OUR COUNTRY. 



of the administration in the hope of helping or avenging the lost cause of the South. 
The conspirators were hunted down. Booth was shot m Maryland; four others 
connected with the conspiracy were tried and hung, and some others were imprisoned. 
The grief of the country for its murdered President was intense and bitter. No man 
was ever more sincerely and deeply mourned. All business was suspended, and crowds 
gathered in silent sadness as his funeral train passed through the different States to the 
place of burial at Springfield, where a splendid monument marks the last resting place of 
one whose name, like that of Washington, will ever be held in the highest honor and 
esteem by the nation that he saved. As Wa^'1ington was well called "the father of his 
country," so Lincoln was its savior. The one was the founder of a republic, the other 
the preserver of the nation and the liberator of a long enslaved race. 

At the end of May, a two days' review of the armies of Grant and Sherman took 
place at Washington. These armies numbered about 200,000 men. The disbanding of 
all the forces, both North and South, was begun, and nearly 1,000,000 men retired quietly 
from the camps and pursuits of war to the occupations of private life. 

The expenses of the war had been enormous, the national debt in i860 amounting 
to $65,000,000, and in 1866 to over $2,800,000,000, and the Confederate debt to over 
$2,000,000,000, which was never paid. At one time the expenses of the national 

To meet these immense 
expenditures, the 
government in 1862 



Sfovernment reached the vast 



sum of $3,500,000 a day. 




Ll.NCOLN S GRAVli. 



issued $ 1 50,000,000 
of legal tender notes, 
known ^s greenbacks, 
from the color of the 
■^ paper on which they 
were printed, and also 
United States bonds 
bearing interest ; and 
they also levied 
internal revenue 
taxes, and greatly 
increased the duties 
on imported goods. 
National banks were 
also established in 
1863, having the 
national bonds as 
security for their cur- 
r e n c y, and as a 
guarantee for its 
redemption, thus 
[iroviding for the 
expenditures of the 
war. The expenses 
and losses by the 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



331 



1 







REVIEW OF THE UNION TROOPS AT WASHINGTON 



332 



OUR COUNTRY. 



war, both North and South, including the value of property destroyed, have been 
estimated at $9,000,000,000. 

The number of troops called for at the North was 2,942,748, and the total number 
obtained and actually in service was 2,690,401. The terms of service varied. Some were 
called for three months, some for six months, and others for one, two, or three years, or 
to the end of the war. On the Union side it is estimated that over 290,000 were killed 
in battle or died from disease in the field, and 400,000 more were disabled or crippled for 
life; and on both sides it is believed that nearly or quite 1,000,000 men were killed or 
received wounds. The Christian Commission and the Sanitary Commission were 

charitable associations, organized at 
the North, for the relief of the sick 
and wounded soldiers, and to carry 
to the camps the instructions and 
consolations of religion, and they 
did their work of benevolence on a 
most liberal scale, millions of dollars 
being contributed to their funds, 
and provision in various forms 
being made in every part of the 
country for the comfort and aid 
of the soldiers. 

As the results of the war, the 
Nation has been freed from the 
curse of slavery, which had so long 
hindered the progress of the fairest 
section of the countryand kept up 
a constant antagonism between the 
North and South, and the South 
has entered on a course of prosperity 
far greater than ever before known. 
The death blow has been given to 
the idea that States may at any 
time secede and be independent, and 
the claim of the United States to 
be one great nation, and not a mere 
confederacy, has been established 
forever. Republican institutions were on trial, and the end has shown that a free people 
can safely guide their own destinies in war as well as in peace. And terrible as the 
conflict and its sufferings have been, the generations to come may reap advantages that 
otherwise could never have been known, and the world may have received a lesson that 
shall yet be fraught with blessings to governments and to mankind. 




THE LINCOLN MONUMENT. 



Review of CAMrAic;NS. 

So important were the movements and events of the War of Secession, 
that a tabulated view of the various engagements and their results cannot but be of 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS — CIVIL WAR. 



333 



interest, especially 
annual campaigns. 



for reference. Below are the principal events of each of the 



Campaigns of i86i. 
Fort Sumter surrendered, .... 

McClellan's West Virginia campaign (successful), 
Butler's repulse at ^2^ j5c/<4c/, .... 
Action at Carthage, Missouri, Confederate victory, 
^a//^a«, Confederate victory. 
Action at IVihon's Creek, Confederate victory, 
Ball's Bluff, Confederate victory. 
Action at Belmont, Missouri, Confederate victory. 

Campaigns of 1862. 
In the West. 
Capture of Fort Henry, Union victory, 
Capture of Fort Donelson, Union victory, 
Occupation of Nashville, Union victory. 
Occupation of Columbus, by Union fleet. 
Battle of Shiloh, Confederate victory, 
Battle of Shiloh, Union victory. 
Capture of Island No. 10, Union victory. 
Capture of Corinth, Union victory. 
Capture of Memphis, Union victory, . 
Invasion of Kentucky, Confederate success. 
Battle of Perryville, Union victory. 
Battle of Murfreesboro, 
Battle of Murfreesboro, 
Corinth and luia. Union success. 
Pea Ridge, Arkansas, Union success. 

In the East. 
Capture of Yorktown, Union victory. 
Action at Williamsburg, Union victory, 
Battle of Fair Oaks, Indecisive, 
Battle of Fair Oaks, Indecisive, 
Jackson's Raid, Diving Creek, Union forces. 
Battle of Gaines' Mill, Confederate victory. 
Seven days' skirmishing at Malvern Hill, 
Lee's Invasion of the North, Confederate victory 
Fight at South Mountain, Union victory. 
Harper's Ferry taken by Confederates, 
Battle of Antietam, Union victory. 
Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate victory. 
Capture of Neiu Orleans, Union victory. . , 

Campaigns of 1863. 
In the East, 
Battle of Chancellorsville, Confederate victory, 
'Lee's Invasion of Pennsylvania, .... 
Battle of Gettysburg, Union victory, . 

In the West. 

Vicksburg taken, Union victory, .... 
Port Hudson taken. Union victory. 
Advance through Tennessee, Union victory, 



April 13. 

June and July. 

June. 

July 5. 

July 21. 

August 10. 

October 21. 

November 7. 



. February 6. 

February 16. 

. February 23. 

March 22. 

. April 6. 

April 7. 

April 7. 

May 30. 

June 6. 

August and September. 

October 8. 

December 31. 

January I. 

September and October. 

March 7, 8. 



May 4. 

May 5. 

. . May 31. 

June I. 

May and June. 

, . June 27. 

July I. 

August and September. 

September 14. 

September 15. 

, September 17. 

. December 13. 

April 28. 



May 2, 3. 

June. 

July 1,2, 3. 



July 4. 

July 9. 

June, July and August. 



334 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Battle of Chickamauga, Confederate victory, 
Battle of Missionary Ridge, Union victory, 
Action in East Tennessee, Union success, 
Attack on Fort Sumter, Confederate victory, 



September ig, 20. 

November 23, 24, 25. 

November. 

April 8. 



Campaigns of 1864. 

/;/ tJie Kast. 

Grant's Overland Campaign begun in May; battles of IVilderness, Spottsylvania, AWth Anna, 

Cold Harbor, indecisive; terrible loss of Union Army, but Lee compelled to retreat. 
Attack on Petersburg, Confederate success. ..... June 18. 

Movements in Shenandoah Valley, Confederate success, . . . May and June. 

Advance on Petersbtirg, Confederate victory, .... May and June. 

Battle of Monocacy, Confederate victory, ..... J"Iy 9- 

The great Mine Explosion before Petersburg, Confederate victory, . . July 30. 

Valley Campaign and battle of Winchester, Union victory, . . . September 19. 

Battle of Cedar Creek, first Confederate, and then Union success, , . October 19. 



/;; the West. 
Sherman' s Campaign from Chattanooga, begun 
Engagement at Atlanta, Union success, end of 
Battle of Eianklin, Union victory. 
Battle of Nashville, Union victory, 
Sherman's March to the Sea, .... 
Capture of Fort McAllister, .... 

Capture of Savannah, ..... 

Campaigns of 1865. 
In the South. 
Sherman's Match North from Savannah, begun 
Columbia taken, ...... 

Charleston taken, ...... 

Actions at Averasboro and Bcntonville, Union successes. 
Arrival at GoUlsboro, ..... 

In the East. 
United forces of Sherman and Grant in Shenandoah Valley, 
Lee's attack on Fort Steadman, Union victory, 
Battle of Fiz>e Forks, Union victory. 
Attack on Petersburg, Union victory. 
Capture of Petersburg and Richtnond, Union victory. 
Surrender of Lee's Army, ..." 

Surrender of Johnston s Army, .... 



Calls for Troops. 

April, iS6i, 75,000 

May, 1S61 82,748 

July, 1S61 500,000 

July, 1S62, 300,000 

August, 1S62 300,000 

June, TS63 . 100,000 

October, 1863 300,000 

February, 1S64 200,000 

March, 1864, . 200,000 

April, 1864 85 000 

July, 1864 500,000 

December, 1864 300,000 



May 6. 

■ July. 

November 30. 
December 15. 
November. 
December 13. 
December 21, 



February 


I. 


February 


17. 


Februarv 


17- 


February. 


March 


23. 


March 


26. 


March 


25- 


April 


I. 


April 


2 


April 


3- 


April 


9- 


April 


26. 



CHAPTER V. 



RECONSTRUCTION AND PEACE. 



Johnson's Administration — 1865 to 1869. 



WHEN the President was assassinated, many feared that the affairs of the 
government might be thrown into hopeless confusion. Such fears, however, 
were soon dispelled, for within a few hours of Lincoln's death the 
Vice-President, Andrew Johnson, took the oath of oiiSce, and was inaugurated as 
President, April 15, 1865. * 

Mr. Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, December 29, 1 808. When ten years 
old, he was apprenticed to a tailor, with whom he served seven years, receiving no schooling. 
Becoming interested in hearing the reading of the speeches of some of the British orators, 
by a visitor to the shop, he resolved to learn for himself, which he did by improving the 
hours between work and sleep. Moving to Tennessee, he worked for a time as a 
journeyman tailor, and by the aid of his wife learned to write and cipher. Taking an 

active part in 
politics, he was 
repeated ly 
chosen to public 
office, and in 
1843 was elected 
t o Congress, 
serving four 
terms in the 
House of Rep- 
resentatives. In 
1853, he was 
chosen governor 
of the State, 
and in 1857 was 
elected to the 
United States 
Senate. During 
the war, he was 
military gov- 
ernor of Ten- 
nessee, and in 
1864 was made 
Vice-President. 
335 




RESIDENCE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 



33<^ 



OUR COUNTRY. 



One of the first questions being that of the reconstiuction of the seceded States, 
Mr. Johnson, in May, 1865, issued a proclamation of amnesty to all who had been 
engaged in the War of Secession, except certain classes which were specified. For the 

Confederate States he 
appointed governors, 
and ordered conven- 
tions of the Southern 
States which were 
required to rescind the 
ordinances of secession, 
to declare void the 
debts contracted for the 
suppression of the War 
of Secession, and to 
vote for an amendment 
to the Constitution 
which had been pro- 
posed by Congress, 
abolishing slavery. 
These requirements 
were complied with by 
the Southern States, 
and the thirteenth 
amendment to the Con- 
stitution, which had 
been passed by 
Congress in the early 
part of the year, having 
been ratified by twenty- 
seven States, was, on 
the 1 8th of December, 
announced by Secretary 
Seward as a part of the 
Constitution, so that slavery was forever forbidden in any part of the United States. 
Serious disagreements and difficulties soon arose between the President and 
Congress. The President, holding that all acts of secession had been null and void, and 
that the Southern States had never been out of the Union, proposed a civil policy 
of treating them accordingly; while Congress, maintaining that such States had for the 
time been out of the Union, advocated a military control over them, and insisted that 
if they were re-admitted to the Union it must be on such conditions as Congress might 
impose as necessary. The President, following out his plan, in May announced the 
restoration of Virginia to the Union ; in June, removed certain restrictions on trade with 
the South, and in September issued a proclamation of more extended amnesty 
than before. 

When Congress met in December, it passed the "Civil Rights Bill," giving 
citizenship to all persons, both white and colored. In March, 1866, the President vetoed 




ANDREW JOHNSON. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



337 



the bill, but it was promptly passed over his veto by a two-thirds vote. Johnson, in 
public speeches, strongly opposed the course of Congress, and was exceedingly bitter in 
his denunciations of its course, declaring that its position " was a new rebellion." 

Congress going forward in its proposed course had submitted to the States, for 
ratification, the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution, giving equal rights to all 
citizens, white or black ; and Tennessee,having assented to this measure, was readmitted 
to the Union in July, 1866. In December, Congress went on in its work, providing by 
bills that no State should be readmitted except on ratifying the fourteenth amendment; 




RUINS OF RICHMOND AFTER THE WAR. 



that the Territory of Nebraska should be admitted as a State on this condition and on 
giving the right of suffrage to all citizens, that the same right of suffrage should be 
granted in the District of Columbia, and that the South should be divided into five 
districts under military governors to be appointed by the President. Johnson vetoed 
all these bills, but they were all passed over his veto. In March, 1867, Nebraska 
became the thirty-seventh State of the Union; and in June and July of the next year. 
North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Arkansas, on the 

same conditions, were readmitted to the Union. 

22 



338 OUR COUNTRY. 

In accordance with the act of Congress which has been mentioned, Johnson 
appointed military governors for the five districts of the South, but afterward, on the 
ground that the act of Congress was unconstitutional, he gave such orders to these 
governors as practically to nullify the act of Congress. That body, however, passed an 
act declaring and re -affirming the meaning of the previous one, and despite the 
President's obstructions, the plans of Congress were carried out. 

In March, 1867, Congress passed what was called the "Tenure of Office Bill," 
declaring that no officer whose appointment by the President required the assent of 
the Senate, should be removed from office without the Senate's permission. It was 
designed to prevent the President from removing officers who were not favorable to his 
policy, and putting in their place those who would carry out his views. 

Such had been the course of the President, that as far back as 1867 there had been 
in the House of Representatives a movement for his impeachment. In the latter part 
of that year the feeling against him was greatly increased by his removal of 
Edwin M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, and the appointment of General Grant in his 
place. The Senate refused its assent to the change, and Stanton resumed the office, 
but was again removed in 1868, and General Thomas, who was adjutant-general, was 
appointed to the place. Stanton refused to vacate the office, and the House of 
Representatives, believing that Johnson was violating the law, the next day resolved 
that he should be "impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors;" and on the 
3d of March they decided that the charges should be brought against him, that he had 
unlawfully removed Stanton, that he had declared that the thirty-ninth Congress was 
not a legally constituted body, and that he had failed to properly execute its acts, as he 
was bound to do. The articles of impeachment, eleven in number, were at once 
presented to the Senate, and in that body, presided over by Chief Justice Chase, the 
trial began on the 23d day of March. The trial continued for two months, the vote in 
the end being thirty-five for conviction and nineteen for acquittal, which amounted to 
an acquittal, as it required a two-thirds vote to convict. In July, Johnson issued 
another proclamation of amnesty, and in December he pardoned all who had taken part 
in the war against the Union. In July, 1868, the fourteenth amendment had been 
ratified by the requisite number of States, and so had become a part of the United 
States Constitution. 

During Mr. Johnson's administration an important question arose as to the relation 
between the United States and France as to Mexico. During the war, Napoleon had 
sent an army which had defeated the Mexican republicans in 1863, and had made 
Maximilian emperor of Mexico. Occupied as the United States was with the War of 
Secession, nothing at the time was done; but at the close of the war Secretary Seward, 
carrying out the Monroe Doctrine, demanded of Napoleon the withdrawal of the French 
troops, which was done. The Mexicans then rose against the forces of Maximilian, and 
conquered them, and Maximilian, being taken prisoner, was shot in 1867. 

In 1866, Cyrus W. Field succeeded in laying the second Atlantic cable in place of 
the one laid in 1858, a defect in which had soon prevented its successful use. The new 
cable was laid by the immense steamship, the Great Eastern. In 1867, a bankrupt Act 
was passed by Congress, and in the same year Alaska was purchased from Russia for 
$7,200,000, thus adding to the territory of the United States 580,000 square miles, 
which was more than the area of the thirteen original States of the Union. The region 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



339 



is of great value for its fisheries, forests and furs, and is said to have mineral deposits of 
immense value, though as yet they are undeveloped. The seal business of Alaska and 
of its islands has been a source of immense profits, as the seals have been numbered 
by millions, and have been taken annually by the tens of thousands for their valuable 




PICKING UP THE ATLANTIC CABLE. 



skins. But the slaughter of them has been so great that it was feared they would be 
extinct unless their destruction was for a time prohibited; and this has now been done 
by the united action of the United States and Great Britain, until the question of 
the control of Behring Sea shall be decided by arbitrators to be appointed, by whom 
all the questions in dispute shall be amicably settled. 



340 



OUR COUNTRY. 



In the presidential campaign of iS6S, the Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour^ 
of New York, and the Republicans nominated General Ulysses S. Grant. The 
Republican party, in its platform, upheld the action of Congress. And Grant was 

elected with Schuyler 
Colfax as Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

Grant's Administra- 
tion — 1869 TO 1877. 

The eighteenth Presi- 
dent of the United 
States, Ulysses S. 
Grant, was inaugurated 
March 4, 1869, with 
Schuyler Colfax, of In- 
diana, as Vice-President. 
Mr. Grant was born 
at Point Pleasant, Ohio, 
April 27, 1822. He 
was graduated at West 
Point in 1843, ^"d 
served with honor in 
the Mexican war, but 
afterward resigned from 
the army, and at the 
outbreak of the Civil 
War was engaged in 
the leather business 
at Galena, Illinois. 
Taking part in the con- 
flict he rose rapidly in 
rank till he was made 
lieutenant-general in 1864. His course during the war, and the leading position he 
occupied during its continuance, and in bringing it to a close, appear fully in the 
account already given of the progress and results of the war. 

During the first year of this administration the last of the seceded States had been 
restored to the Union, and three-fourths of all the States had approved the fifteenth 
amendment, which thus became a part of the Constitution, March 30th, 1870. In 
February, 1871, the Joint Commission of American and British statesmen met at 
Washington, to adjust the claims for injuries to our commerce from Confederate cruisers 
which had been built in English ship yards. By the treaty of Washington, arranged 
by this commission, the question in dispute was referred to a Board of Arbitration, 
which afterward met at Geneva, in Switzerland, and awarded to the United States as 
damages from England, the sum of fifteen million, five hundred thousand dollars, which 
was paid within the year. Between England and the United States there was also an 




ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



341 



tinsettled question as to the line in the channel which separates Vancouver Island from 
the main land. The dispute was referred to William I., Emperor of Germany, as 
arbitrator, and his decision was in favor of the United States. 

In 1869, the great work of connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts by railroad 
was completed, the last tie being laid and the last spike driven on the loth of May. In 
the fall of the same year a disastrous panic occurred in business circles, in which many 
failures occurred and many fortunes were lost. In the autumn of 1871, a fearful fire 
took place in Chicago, sweeping over some two thousand acres in the city, destroying 
property to the value of two hundred millions of dollars, and causing the loss of some 
two hundred lives. And a year later, in November, 1872, Boston suffered from a great 
■conflagration which swept over sixty-five acres of the city and destroyed property to 
the value of eighty millions. The loss of property by the fire, as well as by the long 
interruption of business, in each case was immense, but as the result, both cities were 
greatly improved in the arrangement of streets and the structure of the buildings 
erected. 

In 1871, Mr. Lowe, the American envoy in China, and Admiral John Rodgers 
opened negotiations with the Corean authorities for a treaty to protect shipwrecked 
sailors of foreign nations, who had been cruelly treated by the natives of that country, 
and an expedition was allowed to make a survey of the neighboring coast and waters. 
The Coreans, however, were treacherous and unfaithful to their agreements, and, on 
the 1st of June, while two steamers and four launchers, accompanied by a 

French vessel, 
were busy with 
the survey, a 
number of 
masked batter- 
ies, manned by 
several thou- 
sand Coreans, 
opened upon 
them. Great as 
were the num- 
bers of the 
assailants, they 
were no match 
for the civilized 
forces, who 
returned such 
an effective fire 
that the Coreans 
were driven 
shrieking from 
their works. 
The Corean 
government was 
BIRTHPLACE OF u s. GRANT. notified that 




342 



OUR COUNTRY. 




THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



343 



ten days would be given in which to mat:e a suitable apology. The time passed 
and no apology came. Thereupon, the same vessels, together with a landing party 
of five hundred and fifty men, stormed the Corean forts, destroyed the guns and blew 
up the magazines, besides killing two hundred and forty and wounding many more of 
theCoreans. Of course there was no more talk about not protecting shipwrecked sailors. 
The presidential election of 1872 was one of great excitement, Horace Greeley 
being nominated by the " liberal Republicans " and Democrats, and Grant by the 
Republican party. Grant was re-elected, with Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, as 
Vice-President. In the spring and winter of 1873, a war arose with the Modoc Indians, 
caused by their removal from the lands in Oregon to a new reservation. After a long 
resistance, a conference was held between them and 
a government commission, during the progress of 
which, the savages treacherously murdered General 
Canby and another member of the commission. 




STORMING OF THE COREAN FORTS. 



The Modocs were then 
besieged, and finally they 
surrendered, when their chief, 
Captain Jack and other leaders 
of their tribe, were tried by a 
court-martial and executed. 
During Grant's second term the " Credit 
Mobilier" scandal occurred, a law suit 
bringing to light the fact that several 
members of Congress and a late Vice-President, who 
were owners of its profitable stock, had probably been 
influenced in their vote favoring the company, by gifts 



344 



OUR COUNTRY. 



from its leaders. An investigation, ordered by Congress, left no doubt that there 
had been several cases of corruption. During this second term of President Grant, 
large subsidies had been granted by Congress for the construction of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad, and the prospect of further help being destroyed by 
the "Credit Mobilier" scandal, the credit of the road fell to a low point and brought 
on the failure of the great banking house which had been engaged in the enterprise; 
and other failures following, another severe and widespread panic took place, causing 
stagnation in business and great injury to manufacturing and commercial interests. 




THE BURNING OF CHICAGO. 



In 1876, the great International Exposition, intended to celebrate the first hundred 
years of our independence, was opened in Philadelphia on the loth of May, continuing 
until the loth of November following. The matter was taken up by Congress and 
large sums were appropriated by that body, and also by various State and city 
governments. Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, was selected as the site of the 
exhibition, and immense buildings were there erected for it. The main exhibition 
building, the art gallery, the machinery, horticultural and agricultural halls, etc., all 
were crowded with productions from every part of the world. Thirty-three nations 
were represented by the exhibition of their productions. Nearly 10,000,000 persons, 
averaging some sixty-two thousand a day, were admitted as visitors, and over $3,700,000 
was received for admissions. 




"I DECLARE THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION OPEN. 



546 



OUR COUNTRY. 



In the same year there was trouble with the Sioux Indians in the Black Hills, on 
the borders of Montana and Wyoming, caused by gold hunters invading their 
reservations, thus leading the Indians to depredations and violence. Generals Terry, 
Crook, Custer and Reno were sent against them, and in an attack on the 25th of June 
General Custer and two hundred men were killed. Reinforcements being sent, the 
Indians were defeated in several engagements, and finally, in the beginning of 1877, 
their chief. Sitting Bull, and some of his followers escaped into Canada. 

In the presidential election in the fall of 1876, three ._.__ ^_ 
candidates were brought forward, Peter Cooper, of New i^^^^ .^ ^^ 

York, by the Greenback party, Samuel J. Tilden, .: - 

of New York, by the Democrats, and Rutherford is^^^BOiMr 
B. Hayes, of Ohio, by the Republicans. It was ,^ ^^B 
charged that there were serious frauds in 
several of the States, particularly in Florida, '^"v^^^R 




ATTACK liY MODOCS 



,„ :^ Louisiana and South Carolina. Great 

\ A^^-^ excitement existed, and threats of another 

civil war were more than once heard, but 

/ / "^sT^^ '^'^^ difficulty was finally settled by the 

appointment of a commission consisting 

PEACE COMMISSIONERS, of fivc members each from the Supreme 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



347 




CUSTER S LAST FIGHT. 



348 OUR COUNTRY. 

Court, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. To this body the returns of the 
disputed States were referred and the Republican candidates were declared elected by 
the close vote of 185 to 184 of the electoral college; and so a perilous crisis was passed 
without violence or disturbance. 

The ninth ce-nsus of the United States was completed in 1S70, showing a population 
of 38,587,000. In 1876, Colorado was admitted as the thirty-eighth State to the Union. 



Hayes' Administration — 1877 to 1S81. 

The nineteenth President of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, was 
inaugurated March 5, 1877, the 4th of the month being Sunday, with William A. 
Wheeler, of New York, as Vice-President. 

Mr. Hayes was, born in Delaware, Ohio, in October, 1822. He was graduated from 
Kenyon College in 1842, and studied law at Harvard College three years later. At the 
outbreak of the war he entered the army and served with distinction in several battles, 
reaching the rank, first of brigadier-general, and then of brevet major-general. In 1864, 
he was elected to Congress, and afterward was re-elected for a second term. He was 
also governor of Ohio for two terms in succession. 

In his inaugural address, Mr. Hayes favored a conciliatory policy toward the 
Southern States, which he afterward carried out by appointing as Postmaster-General, 
David M. Key, of Tennessee, who had been a leader in the Confederate army. He also 
withdrew the United States troops from Louisiana and South Carolina, where they had 
been sent to uphold the Republican State governments. He took strong ground in 
favor of Civil Service reform. 

Trouble with the Nez Perces Indians of Idaho, which had begun during Grant's 
administration, now assumed a formidable character, and General Howard was sent 
against them. They were finally hemmed in by our forces and completely subdued in 
October, 1877. The same year a difficulty with Great Britain was settled as to the 
Newfoundland fisheries, by the same commission which, in 1871, had decided as to the 
method of settling the Alabama claims. This body met in Halifax and decided that 
$5,500,000 should be paid by the United States for the privilege of the fisheries for 
twenty years. With China our negotiations had reference to commerce and to Chinese 
immigration to the United States, resulting in two treaties which were satisfactory to 
both nations. 

Financial questions were prominent during this administration. In 1875, after 
seventeen years of suspension. Congress passed an act for the resumption of specie 
payments, to begin on the first of January, 1879, after which date the legal tender notes 
were to be redeemed in coin. In 1878, the Bland Bill was passed, restoring the silver 
dollar to the currency, and providing for its compulsory coinage to a given amount, 
each year, by the mints. The Bankrupt Act was repealed in 1878. During this 
administration the national debt was diminislied over §200,000,000. 

In 1877, there were widespread railroad strikes, caused by a reduction of wages, 
wliich was violently resisted. In West Virginia, trains were blockaded by the strikers, 
who held their ground against the State militia, and were only dispersed by troops from 
the regular army, sent to the spot by the President. A riot occurred in Baltimore, and 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



349 



another in Pittsburg, where the mob, thousands in number, held the city for two days. 
The buildings of the railroad company, with many locomotives and hundreds of cars 
and valuable freight were burned, and property to the amount of $3,000,000 was 

destroyed before the dis- 
turbance was suppressed 
by troops. Riots also 
occurred in New York and 
Kentucky, and also at 
Reading and Chicago, and 
for two weeks or more the 
business of the country 
was greatly interrupted, 
and the losses were very 
great. 

In 1S78, the yellow 
fever, beginning at New 
Orleans, spread through 
the towns and cities as far 
as Louisville, twenty 
thousand people suffering, 
and seven thousand dying 
from the plague. Liberal 
contributions were every- 
where made at the North 
in aid of the suffering 
districts. In 1878, the 
admirable life-saving ser- 
vice, stationed on the 
dangerous parts of our 
coasts to aid endangered 
or shipwrecked vessels or 
sailors, was established. 
In 1880, M. de Lesseps, who had carried through the great work of the Suez Canal, 
visited this country in connection with his plan for cutting a canal through the 
Isthmus of Panama. Great interest was felt in the matter as of immense importance to 
the interests of commerce if it could be successfully carried through, and the President, 
in a message to Congress, while approving the project, declares that if it should be 
constructed the United States should so far have control as to protect our National 
interests. The census of 1880 showed the population of the United States to be 
50,152,866, with its center now as far west as Cincinnati. 

During the summer of 1880, four candidates for the presidency were nominated. 
By the Republicans, James A. Garfield, of Ohio; by the Democrats, Winfield S. 
Hancock, of Pennsylvania; by the Greenback party, James B. Weaver, of Iowa; and 
by the Prohibition party, Neal Dow, of Maine. Garfield was elected President, with 
Chester A. Arthur, of New York, as Vice-President. 




RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



J3 



.^O 



OUR COUNTRY. 




VIEW ON THE I'ANAMA RAILROAD. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



351 



Administrations of Garfield and Arthur — 1881 to 1885. 
The twentieth President of the United States, James A. Garfield, was inaugurated 



March 4, 1881, with Chester A. Arthur as Vice-President. 
Ohio, November 19, 1831. His father dying when he was an 



Mr. Garfield was born in 
infant his mother was left 
in poverty 'with a family 
to be cared for, and from 
an early age he began 
doing what he could for 
her help, working as a 
irpenter and farmer, and 
ter as a driver and pilot 
1 a canal boat, giving 
hat time he could to 
udy that he might pre- 
ue himself for future 
e. In 185 1, he went to 
Iliram College, where he 
as both student and 
acher, and in 1854, 
itered Williams College, 
am which he was gradu- 
ated with distinguished 
honor in 1856. After- 
ird he was a professor 
Hiram College, and 
I nally its President. 
I ntering, after study in 
I leveland, on the practice 
t law, he was elected in 
59, to the Ohio State 
Senate. At the opening 
of the war he entered on 
active service as an officer 
of volunteers ; soon was 
made brigadier-general ; was chief-of-staff to General Rosecrans ; was engaged in several 
important battles, and was afterward made major-general for distinguished services. 
While in the army he was elected to Congress, where for sixteen years he occupied a 
leading position in the Republican party. In 1880, he was elected to the United States 
Senate, but being elected to the presidency he never took his seat in that body. 

The inaugural address, and the wise and prudent course of the President, gave 
promise of a successful and popular administration, but almost from its commencement 
the party which elected him became divided into two factions, each urgent for office 
for its adherents. One party was known as the " Half Breeds," led by Mr. Blaine, and 
the other called the "Stalwarts," led by Roscoe Conkling, Senator from New York. 
The President nominated for the Collectorship of New York a man who was disliked 




JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



352 



OUR COUNTRY. 



by the "Stalwarts," and whose confirmation by the Senate Mr. Conkling strongly 
opposed. But being unable to control the action of the Senate he took the strange and 
unheard of step of resigning his place, and persuading his associate, Mr. Piatt, to do 
the same, hoping and expecting to have influence enough to have both reappointed, 
and so to be endorsed by his State, and tluis to be able to rebuke and triumph over the 
administration. Greatly to their disappointment they utterly failed in their plan, and 
other senators were appointed. 




PUT-INBAY HARBOR, OHIO. 



In the midst of this excitement the country was startled and filled with alarm and 
sorrow by the death of the President, who was shot in the railroad depot in Washington, 
July 2, l88l, by Charles T. Giteau, a disappointed and angry office seeker, who thus 
sought to avenge the supposed neglect. The assassin was at once arrested, and 
afterward tried, convicted and hung. The President was taken to the White House, 
suffering terrible agony, and after several weeks, in which life was fast wasting away, 
was removed to Long Branch, where tender nursing and kindest care and medical skill 
were all in vain, and he died on the 19th of September, his remains being taken to their 
last resting place in Ohio. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



553 



When Lincoln was assassinated, Mr. Garfield had said : " God reigns and the 
government at Washington still lives," and the words were recalled when he himself, 
another chief magistrate, was stricken down by assassination and the executive power 

of the nation passed 
quietly into the hands of 
the one, who, by the 
Constitution, succeeded 
to the office of President. 
Mr. Arthur at once took 
the oath of office, and in 
his inaugural address 
declared his purpose to 
act in the spirit and 
carry out the policy of his 
lamented predecessor. 

Mr. Arthur was born 
in Vermont in October, 




1830. 



He was graduated 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 



from Union College in 
1848, and studying law, 
entered on a successful 
practice in New York. 
When the war broke out 
he was entrusted with 
arming and subsisting 
the New York troops, 
and afterward was 
quartermaster, general, 
engineer-in-chief, and 
inspector-general. Under 
his supervision sixty-eight 
regiments of infantry, six 
battalions, and ten batter- 
ies were sent into the field 
in four months in 1861. In 1S71, he was appointed collector of the port of New York, 
and four years afterward was reappointed, with universal approbation. He resigned 
after six years of service. In 1S80, he was nominated as the Republican candidate for 
Vice-President. 

His administration was not marked by any great measures of policy, whether 
foreign or domestic, but the country was at peace with ail the world and was steadily 
growing in population and prosperity. Some public acts of importance were passed by 
Congress. One was a bill in 1882, prohibiting Chinese immigration to the United 
States for a period of ten years. Another, known as the " Edmunds Law," disfranchised 
the Polygamists of Utah, and passed other restrictions designed to cripple the Mormon 
power. In January, 1883, an act was passed for reform in the civil service, and a 
commission, with Dorman A. Eaton, of New York, at its head, was appointed to carry 
the law into effect. The intent of the bill was to see that those appointed to ofifice 
23 



354 



OUR COUNTRY. 



under the government should be inteHigent and every way qualified for the proper 
discharge of the duties that might devolve upon them. On the 3d of March of the 
same year a new tariff bill was passed reducing considerably duties on various imported 
articles. And on the 4th of March, 1885, a bill was passed authorizing the President to 




GENERAL VIEW OF THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE. 



place on the retired list of the army one person, with full pay, as general for life. 
General Grant was nominated for the position, and the Senate at once confirmed the 
nomination. 

Other events of interest occurred during Mr. Arthur's administration. In 1883, the 
great suspension bridge over the East river, connecting New York and Brooklyn, was 
opened for travel. Its central span was 1,595 feet long, its roadway 135 feet above the 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



355 




k'^'MmBd 



ARRIVAL OF THE FRENCH TKAN'SPORV ISERE. 



556 



OUR COUNTRY. 



water, the entire length of the bridge, including its approaches, 5,985 feet, and its cost 
about $10,000,000. This is one of the most remarkable structures in the world. In the 
same year the Northern Pacific Railroad was completed. In 1884, the corner stone was 
laid on Bedloe's Island, in New York harbor, for a pedestal to support Bartholdi's 




STATUE OF LIBERTY. 



colossal Statue of "Liberty Enlightening the World," which was presented to this 
country by the people of France. The statue and pedestal are together three hundred 
and six feet in height above low water mark. The head of the statue is so large that 
forty persons can sit within it at a time. A powerful electric light at its top sends its 
rays for miles out to sea as a guide to vessels approaching the harbor. In 1885, the 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



357 





THE FARTHEST POINT NORTH REACHED BY LIEUTENANT LOCKWOOD ON THE GREELEY EXPEDITION. 



358 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Washington Monument, in the capital of the country, was dedicated with appropriate 
services. It is in honor of our first President, and is in the form of an obelisk 555 feet 
in height, which is twelve feet higher than the great pyramid in Egypt. In its walls 
are some two hundred marble slabs contributed by foreign countries, States of the 
Union, municipal corporations and private individuals. 

During this administration two expeditions which had been sent to explore 
Northern latitudes were heard from. The Jeanette had been dispatched by the 
government, in co-operation with Mr. Bennett, of the Nezv York Herald, and its 
commander De Long and many of his party lost their lives in the Arctic regions. And 
in 1884, the Thetis, the Bear and the Alert, which had been sent to obtain tidings of 
the expedition which had gone out under Lieutenant Greeley, came back with the few 
survivors of that ill-fated expedition, who, with their commander, were rescued 
from impending starvation, after having reached the latitude of 83", 24', 
the highest point ever attained. Jn 1882, disastrous floods in the Ohio and 
Mississippi Valleys caused much loss of life, destroyed large amounts of property, 
and rendered thousands of people homeless. And in 1884, in a public riot in 
Cincinnati, public buildings were destroyed, and forty-five people were killed and over 
a hundred wounded before order was restored. The riot was caused by dissatisfaction, 
with the result of a trial for murder, where the populace felt that justice had not 
been done. 

In the presidential contest in the fall of 1884, four candidates were in the field. 
The Republicans nominated James G. Blaine, of Maine; the Democrats, Grover 
Cleveland, of New York; the Prohibitionists, John P. St. John, of Kansas; and the 
Greenback, or " People's party," Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts. The campaign 
was exciting, and was waged greatly on personal issues, and resulted in the election of 
Mr. Cleveland as President, and Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, as Vice-President.. 
For the first time in twenty-four years the Republicans failed to elect their candidate. 







CALDWELL, THE BIRTHPLACE OK CLEVELAND. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



359 



Cleveland's Administration — 1885 to 1889. 

The twenty-second President of the United States, Grover Cleveland, was 
inaugurated March 4, 1885, with Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, as Vice-President. 
Mr. Cleveland was born at Caldwell, New Jersey, March 18, 1837. His early years were 

passed in helping to 
support his widowed 
mother, but he acquired 
a good education, 
studied law, and entered 
on the practice of his 
profession in Buffalo, 
New York, where he 
soon became prominent 
as a member of the bar. 
In 1863, he was made 
assistant district 
attorney, and in 1870, 
was elected sheriff of 
the county. In 1881, 
he was chosen mayor 
of the city, which was 
strongly Republican, 
though he was a Demo- 
crat, because he was 
brought forward as the 
reform candidate. As 
mayor, his administra- 
tion was able and 
independent, and so 
added to his popularity 
that when nominated 
for the office of gov- 
ernor of the State in 
1882, he was elected by 
the very great majority of 192,854 votes, large numbers of Republicans voting for him 
because they were dissatisfied with the methods of their own party. While still 
holding this important office, he was nominated by the Democratic National Convention, 
and was elected to the office of President. 

Entering on office he refused to make the wholesale changes demanded by the 
crowds of ofifice seekers, honestly believing in the principles of the Civil Service Bill. In 
his message to the forty-ninth Congress which assembled in December, 1885, he advocated 
the reduction of duties on certain importations in ordinary use, and also suggested the 
suspension of the compulsory coinage of silver; advised important additions to the 
navy ; the suppression of polygamy in Utah ; the faithful enforcement of the civil service 
rules; and also urged that the question of presidential succession be definitely settled 




GROVER CLEVELAND. 



36o 



OUR COUNTRY. 




DECORATION DAY. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



361 




by law. This last suggestion was acted on by Congress, and a law was passed January 
19, 1886, that in case of the death of both President and Vice-President, the duties of 
the former shall devolve on the Secretary of State, and in case of his death or disability, 
on the next cabinet officer, and so in order through the list of such officers. One of the 
most important measures of the administration was the passage of the Inter-state 
Commerce Bill, the object of which was to rightly regulate railroad and other 
transportations between the different States of the Union. 

In the spring of 1886, there were great labor agitations, and a strike that began in 
March extended to all the southwestern railroads so that transportation and travel were 

for weeks greatly 
embarrassed, and 
at some points 
blood was shed. 
There were 
strikes also on 
the street car 
roads of New 
York ; and on 
the Pacific coast 
the employment 
of Chinese labor- 
ers excited bitter 
opposition and 
riots, and some 
lives were lost. 
In May the 
,^_^J demand was 
made in various 
places for the 
limit of labor to 
eight hours in 
the day, and 
there was much 
agitation and 
trouble, especi- 
al ally in Chicago 
and Milwaukee; 
and in Chicago 
a bomb was 
exploded among a body of police and several persons were killed by it and by the 
firing on both sides. It was some time before these various troubles were quieted so 
that business could resume its accustomed course. 

In May of this year, the old question of the Canadian fisheries came up, and an 
American schooner was seized on the charge of having purchased bait within the forbidden 
limits, but the -matter after a short time was settled. In July, there was a difficulty 
with Mexico, our government demanding the release of an American citizen who had 
■been held by the Mexican authorities, but this matter, too, was satisfactorily settled. 




EARTHQUAKE AT CHARLESTON, S. C. 



362 OUR COUNTRY. 

In June, the President was married in Washington to Miss Frances Folsoni, of 
Buffalo. In the summer of 1885, General Grant died at Mount McGregor, New York, 
after months of great suffering, and on the 8th of August his remains, followed by an 
escort of thousands, were laid at rest in a vault at Riverside Park, where a monument 
is to be erected to his memory. The South as well as the North unitedly mourned over 
his death, and as a mark of the cessation of all sectional animosities, as well as of the 
high respect and regard of the former for the distinguished leader, two of the pall bearers 
were Generals Johnston and Buckner, who had been generals of the Confederate armies, 
while Generals Sherman and Sheridan, and Admirals Porter and Rowan, with others who 
were distinguished in civil life, took part with them in the sad services. In October, 
1885, General George B. McCIellan died; in November, Mr. Thomas A. Hendricks, the 
Vice-President; and in 1886, General Winfield S. Hancock, who had been one of the 
leaders at the battle of Gettysburg; in 1887, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the eloquent 
preacher of Brooklyn; and in 1888, Morrison R. Waite, chief justice of the United 
States Supreme Court. 

During this administration the great exposition in New Orleans took place, to 
celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the first export of cotton for foreign consumption. 
The largest of its buildings covered thirty-three acres, and forty-five States and territories, 
and twenty-one foreign countries contributed articles and aid to it. During this 
administration, in 1886, an alarming earthquake at Charleston, South Carolina, shook the 
whole city and vicinity, hardly a building escaping injury, and much property being lost. 
Four new States during this administration were admitted to the Union, North and South 
Dakota, Montana and Washington. And the new department of agriculture was 
organized by Congress, making eight instead of seven departments of the government, 
each represented in the cabinet by a secretary. 

Harrison's Administration — 1889 to 1893. 

The twenty-ninth President of the United States was Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana. 
He was inaugurated March 4, 1889, with Levi P. Morton, of New York, as Vice-President. 

Mr. Harrison was a grandson of William H. Harrison, the ninth President of the 
United States, and was born in North Bend, Ohio, August 20, 1833. He was graduated 
at Miami University, and studying law, entered on its practice in Indiana. When the 
War of Secession broke out, he raised a regiment, in which he rose to be a colonel and 
then general, and was with General Sherman in his famous march through the South. 
In 1880, he was chosen a member of the United States Senate, where he took an active 
part in forwarding some of the important measures of its sessions. In 1888, he was 
nominated for the presidency by the Republican convention, and was elected. 

During the administration of Mr. Harrison, delegates from several of the Central 
and South American States met in Washington to consult as to the interests of commerce 
between those countries and the United States, and reciprocity arrangements were made 
of great advantage to the different countries represented, allowing the entrance of the 
products of each to the others without the payment of certain duties which had 
previously been required. In carrying out these arrangements the "Bureau of American 
Republics " was organized and plans were adopted, giving promise of mutual and great 
advantage in the way of trade to the different States associated in the arrangements. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



363 




364 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Another matter of importance was the Behring Sea question, having reference to 
the true boundaries of that sea, the hnes of separation between it and the ocean, how far 
it was an open or a closed sea, and who had the right of taking the seals in or near it. 

For a time the conflict- 
ing claims of the United 
States and Great Britain 
seemed to threaten the 
friendly relations of the 
two countries. But 
until the questions at 
issue could be amicably 
settled by common 
agreement between 
the two countries the 
taking of seals was 
forbidden by both 
nations, lest from the 
great numbers taken the 
seals should be exter- 
minated. But a treaty 
arrangement was made 
between the two gov- 
ernments in the year 
1 89 1, to refer the ques- 
tions in debate to 
arbitration, which, when 
ratified by the United 
States Senate, will 
finally settle the respec- 
tive rights of the two 
countries as to the 
boundaries of that 
sea, and how far it is to be regarded as closed, or open, like the ocean, to all. 
Another important matter during this administration, was the arrangement made for 
the great Columbian Exhibition to celebrate the four hundredtk anniversary of the 
discovery of America by Columbus. The city of Chicago, to secure the location of the 
Exhibition, or Worlds Fair, subscribed millions of dollars, and other millions were 
appropriated by Congress to carry out the plans which were adopted, and most of the 
countries of Europe, as well as the different States of this country, engaged with 
warmest interest in efforts to make the Exhibition the greatest and most successful 
ever undertaken. Appropriations for immense and magnificent structures were 
made, and in every part of the land preparations were begun for exhibiting 
everything in the form of production, manufacture, invention, the treasures of art, 
or the applications of science, that might show the progress and prosperity of our 
own and other lands. Aside from the cost of the great buildings, which will be 
nearly $8,000,000, the cost of bridges, waterworks, railways, steam plant, sewerage, 




EENJAMIN HARRISON. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



365 



statuary, electric lighting, grading and ornamenting the grounds, etc., is estimated 
at about $6,000,000 more, and the expense of organization and management at 
nearly $5,000,000. This includes no account of what may be spent by the 
National or State governments or by foreign nations. All the arrangements for 
the exhibition were placed under the direction of an able and efficient board of managers, 
the presidency of which was given to Hon. Thomas W. Palmer, of Michigan, late 




HON. THOMAS W. PALMER, PRESIDENT WORLD S FAIR COMMISSION. 



United States minister to Spain, and ex-member of the United States Senate, under 
whom and his associate managers the exhibition could not well be otherwise than a 
great success. 



In concluding this review of the Federal administrations it may be well to call 
attention to. several interesting facts concerning the public careers of some of the 
distinguished statesmen who have faithfully served the republic. 

The longest, and probably the greatest official career this nation has ever witnessed 
was that of John Quincy Adams. It is interesting in this connection to recall the well 
known facts. His public career began in 1794, when he was sent as minister to the 
Netherlands. Afterward he was minister to Prussia, member of the State Senate, United 
States Senator, twice minister to Russia, declined a seat on the supreme bench, was a 
member of the commission which negotiated the treaty of Ghent, was Secretary of State, 



366 OUR COUNTRY. 

President of the United States, and for more than sixteen years a member of the House 
of Representatives, where he nobly defended the right of petition, dying at last 
in the Capitol. 

During this unique career of fifty-four years he was fifteen years in the diplomatic service, 
five years senator, eight years Secretary of State, four years President, and sixteen j-ears 
a representative. 

The second great career was that of Henry Clay. His public life began in 1803 and 
ended in 1852. During these forty-nine years he was a member of the Kentucky 
legislature, was five times elected United States senator, six times representative, and 
six times speaker of the House, was a member of the commission to negotiate the treaty 
of peace with Great Britain, was Secretary of State, and was twice the unsuccessful 
candidate of his party for the presidency. He twice resigned from the Senate and twice 
from the House, declined the mission to Russia and a place in the cabinet offered 
him by President Madison, as he did a place in the cabinet offered him by President 
Monroe. He was United States senator at twenty-nine, speaker of the House at 
thirty-four, and candidate for the presidency at forty-two. 

The career of James G. Blaine has often been compared to that of Clay, but it has 
been neither so long nor so varied. Mr. Blaine's public life began in 1859, when he 
was elected to the Maine legislature, continuing there four years, two years as speaker. 
He was seven times elected to the House of Representatives, three times speaker thereof, 
was once appointed and once elected Senator, and has been twice Secretary of State. 
He has been three times a candidate for the presidential nomination of his party, 
with whom he has always been popular. 

Many other great careers challenge our admiration. Daniel Webster was a public 
man for forty years. He was twice elected congressman from New Hampshire and three 
times from Massachusetts. He was four times elected to the Senate, serving in that body 
nineteen years. He was Secretary of State under Harrison in 1841, and was continued 
under Tyler. He was afterward Secretary of State under Fillmore. Webster and Blaine 
are the only men who served twice as Secretary of State under administrations which 
were not successive. He was the chief instrument of negotiating some important treaties, 
and no man has more clearly expounded, or more nobly defended the great principles of 
the United States Constitution. 

Mention of Clay and Webster at once brings Calhoun to mind. He was in public 
life forty-two years. He began in the legislature of his State, as nearly all our great 
publicists begin. He then served five years in the House of Representative, was 
Secretary of War nearly eight years, sat in the Senate fifteen years, and was Secretary 
of State under Tyler one year. 

Thomas H. Benton's remarkable career of thirty years in the Senate still stands as 
the longest record of continuous service in that body. Benton was defeated for 
re-election, but came to the next Congress as a member of the House, and was defeated 
for re-election to his seat there, and was also beaten for governor of Missouri — which 
was the ending of his public career. 

The longest congressional career in our history was that of General Samuel Smith, 
of Baltimore. He was a representative from 1793 to 1803, and again from 1816 to 1822, 
and a Senator from 1803 to 1815, and from 1822 to 1833 — forty years of continuous 
service in Congress. Besides this remarkable career as a legisliitor he was once mayor of 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



367 




KENTUCKY SCENE — SOUTH BANK OF THE OHIO. 



368 OUR COUNTRY. 

Baltimore, and in the Revolutionary War rose from the rank of captain to that of 
brigadier-general. 

Next in point of long service vi^as Nathaniel Macon, who was twenty-four years in 
the House, where he served four years as speaker, and was thirteen years in the Senate, 
where he was for some time the presiding officer. 

A noteworthy career was that of Alexander Hamilton. Brilliant in the martial field 
while barely out of his teens, at twenty-five in the Continental Congress, at thirty a 
power in the convention which formed the Constitution, Secretary of the Treasury and 
the father of a financial system at thirty-two; falling in a duel at forty-seven. 

Robert C. Winthrop at forty-two had been five years in the Massachusetts Legislature,' 
ten years in the National House, where he was elected speaker, and was one year 
in the Senate. Then his promising public career came to an end, though he is (1891) 
still living. 

John S. Crittenden fought in the battle of the Thames, in 18 12, and from that date , 
to his death, in 1863, was almost constantly in public life. After serving a number of 
years in the State Legislature, he represented Kentucky in the Senate from 1817 to 18 19, 
again from 1835 to 1848, and finally from 1855 to 1861. Meanwhile he was once 
governor of Kentucky and twice attorney-general of the United States. Between his 
first appearance in the Senate and his final exit therefrom, forty-four years passed, and 
then he rounded out his career by serving two years in the House. 

James Buchanan's long public career has been forgotten by many people. In the 
forty years between 1821 and 1861, he was ten years in the House, eleven years in the 
Senate, minister to Russia, minister to France, Secretary of State and President. 

At twenty-five Lewis Cass was a member of the Ohio Legislature. He distinguished 
himself in the war of 1812, was eighteen years governor of Michigan, five years Secretary 
of War, four years minister to France, twelve years a Senator and three years Secretary 
of State. 

No sketch of great careers would be complete witliout mention of the fifty years of 
public service rendered by Thomas Jefferson — member of the Legislature, delegate in 
Congress, author of the Declaration of Independence, governor of Virginia, minister to 
France, and also serving in other diplomatic posts. Secretary of State, Vice-President, 
and President. Some of the most important of our public measures were suggested by 
him, and the Louisiana purchase, which added to our country a territory larger than all 
the thirteen original States, was a measure of his administration. 

Turning to the Judicial branch of our government, it is interesting to note the length 
of the public careers of some of the justices of our supreme court. John Marshall's career 
on the supreme bench has never been equalled, either in length of service or in the 
distinguished character of the jurist. He was chief justice from 1801 to 1835, sitting 
thirty-four years and five months. He is the only man who ever held the offices 
of chief justice of the supreme court and Secretary of State at the same time. 
In January, 1801, he was Secretary of State under President John Adams. On the 20th 
of that month he was nominated to the Senate for chief justice, confirmed on the 27th, 
commissioned on the 31st, and presided on the bench from the 4th to the 9th of 
February. He continued to act as Secretary of State until March 3, when the Adams 
administration came to an end. 

Justice Story sat thirty-four years, Justices McLean and Wayne thirty-two years 
each, Bushrod Washington thirty-one years, Justice Johnson thirty years, Chief Justice 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 



369 



Taney and Justices Miller and Catron each twenty-eight years, and Justices Nelson and 
Woodbury each twenty-seven years. Justice Field has been longer on the bench than 
any who are now members of the supreme court. 

It is a noteworthy fact that no judge of the supreme court and no cabinet oiificer, 
other than Secretary of State, ever became President. General Grant was for a time 
acting Secretary of War, though not commissioned as such, and James Monroe was 
acting Secretary of War under Madison. Six Secretaries of State have been Presidents, 
viz.: Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Ouincy Adams, Van Buren, and Buchanan. 




24 



A HAK\EST SCENt IN JUCHIGAN. 



CHAPTER VI. 



OUR COUNTRYS GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 



I. — Territory. 

THE earliest claim to territory in the various parts of what is now the United 
States, was on the ground of discovery, small settlements being made in Virginia 
and at several places in New England, and later in New York, and at other points 
of what afterward became the thirteen original States. Before 1781, only six of the 
thirteen States, viz. : New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Maryland and Delaware, had exactly defined boundaries. Of the remaining seven States 
some claimed to extend westward to the Pacific ocean and otfiers to the Mississippi river, 
though the knowledge of tlie regions thus claimed was in most cases quite indefinite. 
But little more than fifty years ago, Daniel Webster, speaking of the region then known 
as Oregon, said that it was so far off that it could never be governed by the United 
States, and that a delegate to Congress, even if one was appointed, could not reach 
Washington until a year after the expiration of the term for which he was elected. 
And a common impression as to a large part of the great Western region beyond the 
Mississippi was, that it was a waste, unproductive region, large portions of which were 
but alkali deserts. 

The States within exact boundaries ceded to the United States their claims to most 
if not all of their lands west of their present limits, as follows: New York, in 1781 ; 
Virginia (except 6,570 square miles of her military bounty lands), in 1784; Massachusetts, 
in 1785; Connecticut, in 1786; South Carolina, in 1787; North Carolina, in 1790; and 
Georgia, in 1802. These colonies surrendered to the general government all the territory 
which was ceded by Great Britain after the revolution, which was not included in the 
thirteen original States, as in the main they are now bounded. 

In 17S3, the whole area of the United States was only 820,680 square miles. Both 
England and France had been intending, if possible, to confine the limits of the United 
States to the Atlantic on the East, and the Alleghany Mountains on the West, but as an 
able English reviewer says, speaking of the treaty of 1783 : "Three of the ablest men of 
the United States, P"ranklin, John Adams, and John Jay, succeeded by their astuteness 
and persistency in extending its limits to the east bank of the Mississippi, despite 
the insidious efforts of Vergennes, on the part of France, to hem in the new nation 
between the Atlantic and the Appalachian range." Similar concessions, he says, they also 
gained from Oswald, the English commissioner, and also valuable fishing rights on 
English waters, and so arranged the boundaries between Canada and the United States, 

370 




GR()\VTII AND IMPROVEMENT. 



371 



"as in later times to make Canada weep tears of humiliation." 
By the purchase of Louisiana from France in 1803, the 
United States acquired 930,928 square miles, which was more 
in extent than all the then existing States. By the acquisition 
of Florida from Spain in 1819, it added 59,270 square miles; 
by the annexation of Texas in 1845, -47>ooo; by the 
ff Oregon treaty with Great Britain in 1846, 280,425 ; by treaties 



^fAat 









JW'i^^ 




with, and purchase from Mexico, after the 

war with that nation, 677,260, and by the 

purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, 

577.390 square miles, making in all 3,603,844 

square miles, or 2,306,460,160 acres. This vast 

territory, which is more than sixty times as large 

as England, is divided, as we have seen, into 

forty-four States and seven Territories, including 

the District of Columbia, and Alaska which is not yet 

fully organized. 

Though the United States occupies the central part 

of the continent, more than two-thirds of its frontiers 

are the shores of large lakes and oceans, with numerous 

bays, sounds and navigable rivers. Its rivers, some of 

which are the largest in the world, are those entering into 

the Atlantic or into its bays and sounds; those entering into 

the Gulf of Mexico, and those entering into the Pacific; 

besides which there are many smaller rivers entering into the 



372 



OUR COUNTRY. 



great lakes and finding their way to the ocean through the St. Lawrence, and also the 
rivers which empty into the salt lakes of the great interior basin of Utah. 

The chief mountains are the great eastern chain of the Alleghanies and the Rocky 
Mountains. The soil and climate have every variety, and the productions, which of 




IMPROVING LEADVILLR, 1877. 



course vaiy with the different regions, are those that may be found in the different zones. 
In the accounts given of the various States may be found more particular notice of the 
population, of the occupations and resources of the people, and of the sources of 
prosperity to the different parts of the country. 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 373 



II — Population. 



No country has been peopled by such a variety of races as the United States. The 
New England colonies were originally settled chiefly by English Puritans, with some 
Scotch and Welch; New York by the Dutch; Pennsylvania by Quakers and Germans; 
Maryland by English Roman Catholics; Delaware and New Jersey by Dutch and 
Swedes; Virginia by English cavaUers and large numbers of adventurers and indented 
servants; the Carolinas and Georgia by English and the French Huguenots; Louisiana 
by the French; Florida, Texas and California by the Spaniards; and Utah by Mormons 
chiefly from England, Wales and the northern parts of Europe. And from an early date 
immigration has been going on from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France, 
Sweden, Switzerland, China, and more or less from every part of the world. 

No official record was made of the influx of foreigners to this country before 1820, 
but from the close of the Revolutionary War to that date it is estimated that some 
225,000 immigrants had come to our shores. From 1821 to 1890 the number of 
immigrants was 15,641,688. The arrivals from 1821 to 1830 were 143,439; froni 
1831 to 1840, 599,125; from 1841 to 1850, 1,713,251; from 1851 to i860, 2,598,214; from 
1861 to 1870, 2,466,752; from 1871 to 1880, 2,944,295; from 1881 to 1890, 5,176,212. 

Of these numbers 4,551,719 were from Germany; 3,501,683 from Ireland; 2,460,034 
from England; 1,029,083 from the British North American possessions; 943,330 from 
Norway and Sweden; 464,425 from Austria-Hungary; 414,513 from Italy; 370,162 
from France; 356,353 from Russia and Poland; 329,192 from Scotland; 292,578 from 
China; 174,333 from Switzerland; 146,237 from Denmark; and from all the other 
countries, 606,606. Of those coming in in the last ten years, 26,257 males were of the 
professional classes; 514,552 were skilled laborers; 1,833,325 were of miscellaneous 
occupations; 73,327 made no statement as to their occupations; and 759,450 were 
without occupation. Of 2,040,702 females, 1,724,454 were without special occupation, 
though large numbers of them engaged in domestic service. 

Of such various and different nationalities and their descendants, the population of 
the United States is made up. If their children come into our schools, learn our 
language, enter into our spirit, and fall into our views of liberty and into our ways of 
thinking, believing and acting; in a word, if they drop or outgrow the race spirit and 
feeling and become truly Americans, they may be a blessing alike to themselves and 
to the country. " One country for all, one Constitution for all, one standard of 
loyalty for all, one class of free, public, state, non-sectarian schools for all, one 
sacred ballot box for all, one type of citizenship for all, one Declaration of Independence 
for all, one national language for all, one flag with its stars-and-stripes for all, one 
sovereign for all, and that, the sovereign will of the people," educated and taught the 
great principles of truth and duty — in all this is the safety, the welfare, the glory of 
Our Country, 



374 



OUR COUNTRY. 







GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 375 



III. — Government. 



In the early history of the country, the colonies, from the time of their settlements 
down to the Declaration of Independence in 1776, were under the dominion of Great 
Britain, but were governed in different ways, and most of them from time to time had 
changes in their mode of government. The kinds of government were: — 

I. By a Coinincrcial Corporation, such as the " London Company," which at first 
organized and ruled Virginia under a charter from the king, though afterward this 
company was dissolved, and Virginia became first a royal, and then a proprietary, and 
then again a royal province, though in 1619 it was allowed to have a colonial legislature. 

II. Proprietary government, the control being by the authority of some proprietor 
or proprietors to whom the king had granted the province. Such was Pennsylvania 
under William Penn, and Maryland under Lord Baltimore, and at first New Hampshire 
and also New York, both afterward made royal provinces. 

III. Royal government, by the king through some royal governor of his 
appointment. Under such government most of the colonies were at some time in the 
course of their history. 

IV. Charter government, that is, under a charter or written instrument, given by 
the king, and granting certain political rights and privileges to the colonists. 

V. Voluntary or Popular government, founded by the people themselves without 
the authority of king, proprietor or company, as was the case at first with the Plymouth, 
Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Haven Colonies, though Plymouth, Rhode Island, 
and Connecticut afterward had charters, and in 1686 Plymouth was made a royal 
province, and then in 1692 had a new charter. Some of the colonies were allowed to 
have their own legislatures, and in most if not all the small towns and settlements, local 
matters were managed by the colonists through the leading magistrates and by deputies 
from the people. 

Before the Revolution, the Colonial Assemblies had gained prominence, and were 
taking an active part in public affairs; and corresponding and consulting with each other 
as they did, the various colonies were becoming more assimilated as one people, planning 
and acting in concert in view of the oppressions of the mother country. 

The first Colonial Congress met in New York, October 7, 1765, and in it nine 
colonies were represented by twenty-eight delegates. The first Continental Congress 
met in Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, and in it all the colonies were represented except 
Georgia, a delegation from which was prevented by the governor. In November, 1777, 
Congress adopted the " Articles of Confederation " which were to be the basis of a 
Constitution or general government for the United States when approved by all the 
States; and all the States did approve, but not the last of them till 1781. 

The government under this plan was a Confederation or league of the States, but its 
powers were so limited and inefficient that in 1787 a convention was called to form a 
Constitution. After four months' deliberation the Constitution was formed, and was 
signed on the 17th of September, 1787; and by the middle of 1788 it was ratified and 
adopted by eleven of the thirteen States, and by 1790 also by the remaining two. It 
went into operation March 4, 1789. It is the Constitution as now existing except as it 
has been modified by several important amendments. 



3/6 OUR COUNTRY. 

By this Constitution the government was divided into three departments, the 
Legislative, to make tlie laws; the Executive, to enforce them; and the Judicial, to 
interpret them. The Legislative, or law-making power, was to be in Congress; the 
Executive, or law-enforcing power, in the President; and the Judicial, or law-interpreting 
power, in certain courts, the judges of which were to be appointed by the President with 
the approval of the Senate. 

The Legislature. 

The Legislative, or law-making department, or Congress, was to consist of the House 
of Representatives, chosen by the people of the States in proportion to their population, 
and the Senate, in which each State was to be equally represented, the representatives to 
hold office for two, and the senators for six years. Some were in favor of only one 
legislative body, while others preferred two that each might be a check on the other, and 
the decision in favor of the present mode of two houses is to be traced back, it is said,- 
to a trifling personal dispute in the early history of Massachusetts. In that colony, in 
the days of Governor Winthrop, the custom had been for the magistrates and the 
delegates from the people to meet as one body for legislation and for the decision of all 
public questions. A poor widow had lost a pig which she claimed had been taken and 
killed by a prominent, and for the times, a rich man, and as she repeatedly brought the 
case before the public authorities, and before a jury, the decisions in each case were 
against her. Not a little feeling on the matter was excited in the little community, and 
the cry was raised that it was " the rich against the poor," and that the delegates from 
the people, meeting as one body with the magistrates, were influenced and overborne by 
the latter. Winthrop, whose remarkable and practical wisdom had more than once 
carried the infant colony safely through previous troubles, seeing the rising feeling, and 
the gravity of the possible issue, suggested the division of the council into two bodies, 
the magistrates and deputies of the people each to meet by themselves, each to have a 
chamber of its own, and to have a negative on the action of the other; and this, it is 
said, was the origin of the two bodies for legislation, which soon became the rule in all 
the colonies. " It was the first experiment of dual legislation on this continent." 

More than a century later, in the great debates as to the Constitution, John 
Adams, taking the lesson from the early experience of Massachusetts, advocated two 
Houses of Congress, and in this he was seconded by Washington, while Franklin, 
Jefferson and others were in favor of but one House, as in France. And the anecdote 
is told that Washington and Jefferson taking tea together, and familiarly debating the 
question, Jefferson finding his tea too hot for the month, poured it out into the saucer. 
"There," said Washington, "is my argument — when the debates in one House become 
too hot and exciting, pour them out into the other and they will have time to cool, and 
so the wisest counsels will prevail." And Jefferson, it is said, smilingly admitted the 
force of the suggestion, and assented to the views of Adams, in accordance with which, 
the dual principal of legislation became the organic law of the United States. Strange 
it may seem that the quarrel about a stray pig should so excite for months the reverend 
divines and grave and earnest magistrates and deputies of a colony as to endanger its 
unity and peace. But through the guidance of Providence that trifling and ludicrous 
incident was made to lay a firm foundation for the wise and*safe government and the 




't/^y i.M,:jA/^ 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 



377 



sure liberties of a nation. The loss of a screw driver decided the battle of New Orleans 
in 1 8 14, and the change of the wind, from one direction to another, wrecked the mighty- 
Armada of Spain, and sent seventy thousand tons of her hostile fleet to the bottom of 
the sea, and so saved England from the Spanish Inquisition ! 

The Executive. 

As the Legislature was to make the laws which became valid and binding when 
approved by the President, the Executive department was to see that they were carried 
out and enforced. This Executive power was to be vested in the President who was to 
be chosen by electors appointed by the people. He was also to be commander-in-chief 
of the military and naval forces of the Nation, and by, and with, the advice and consent 
of the Senate to appoint embassadors and other public officers, and also consuls, 
and judges of the supreme and other United States courts. At first, the President had 
four secretaries, each having charge of a department of executive work, but this number 
has since been increased to eight ; so that now there is a Secretary of State, of 
the Treasury, of War, of the Navy, of the Interior, of Agriculture, and the 
Attorney-General, and the Postmaster-General. 

The Judiciary. 

The Judicial power of the government was to be vested in a supretne court and 
such other inferior courts as Congress might from time to time establish, the different 
courts to have jurisdiction in certain classes of cases which were specified by law. The 
judges of these courts were to be appointed by the President with the approval of the 
Senate. It hardly need be added that the duties of these three departments of the 
National government are confined to matters that pertain to the Nation as a whole, and 
that each of the States has its own Legislature and its Executive and Judiciary 
departments which take cognizance of matters that pertain especially to the State and 
its interests. 

IV. — Education. 

In every civilized or even partially civilized country, the idea seems to have been 
prevalent that education ought to be co-extensive with sovereignty. Despotism and 
aristocracy would have education, but would have it restricted to those who are to 
administer the government. Even Plato thought that " control should be intelligent," 
and Charlemagne required "that the children of all persons participating in the 
government should be educated, in order that intelligence might rule the empire," 
though the thought of educating the great masses of the common people probably 
never entered his mind. 

But from the time of the reformation, if not earlier, the importance of general 
education began to be felt and acknowledged. Luther protested that every child was 
worthy of the best education, saying that " if there were no soul, no heaven, no future 
after this life, and if temporal affairs were to be administered solely with a view to the 
present, it would be a sufificient reason for establishing, in every place, the best schools 
both for boys and girls ; that the world, merely to maintain its outward prosperity, has 



378 



OUR COUNTRY. 




need of shrewd and accomplished men and 
women." And Calvin, so far as he could, 
made education obligatory on all, so that 
Bancroft, tracing the influence of the example 
seen in the customs of Switzerland, says, 
" The common school system was derived 
from Geneva — the work of Calvin was intro- 
duced by Luther into Germany, and by 
John Knox into Scotland, and so became the 
property of the English speaking nation." 
John of Nassau, Mr. Motley says, so early as 
the sixteenth century " urged the States 
General to establish schools where children of _\ 
quality as well as of poor families could, for I" 
a very small sum, be well and christianly ■ 
educated and brought up ; " which, he said, ]'}■ 



m 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 379 

would be the "greatest and most useful work they could ever accomphsh for God, 
Christianity and the Netherlands." And Charles X, and Gustavus Adolphus " made 
education so common in Sweden that in 1637 not a single peasant child was unable to 
read and write." Holland in the previous century had not only Latin or "great 
schools," but lower or " small schools " for elementary training, and Motley tells us that 
in 1635 the Latin school at Dordrecht had been in existence for some centuries, and was 
one of the most famous institutions of Northwestern Europe. And he thinks the New 
England colonists gained their educational impulse more from the Netherlands than 
from England. 

Whether the origin of the idea can, or cannot be traced, it is plain that all the early 
colonists of the United States saw and felt the importance of education, though they 
differed not a little in their views of its nature and extent. For the Dutch settlements 
in New York it was ordered in 1630 that a clergyman and a schoolmaster should be 
maintained, and that each householder and inhabitant should be taxed for their 
support. And for Boston it has been claimed, as it has been for Dorchester, Hartford, 
and Brooklyn, that it had the earliest existing school in the Upited States. 

But before any of these places had schools, provision had been made for education 
in the older colony of Virginia, a grant of fifteen thousand acres of land having been 
made by Parliament in 1619, for a college and preparatory schools, for which several 
subscriptions of money were also made in the next two years. The terrible Indian 
war of 1622 prevented these plans from being carried out, but the matter was not 
forgotten, for in 1645 we find Richard Norwood writing " that he had been teaching 
school in Bermuda (Somers) islands for thirty years." In 1635 the people of Boston in 
town meeting voted land for school masters, and there were schools at New Haven in 
1638, at Newport in 1640, and at Hartford in 1641. In all these and in other cases in 
the colonies, schools were endowed with lands, bequests, rents, and donations, and 
these were supplemented by general taxation. None of these schools, however, were 
free; tuition in whole or in part was paid for in all. 

New England early adopted and, with a single exception, has always maintained 
that the public should provide for the education of all the people. What elsewhere was 
left to local provision, as in New York, or to charity, as in Pennsylvania, or chiefly to 
parental interest, as in Virginia and some of the Southern colonies, was in most of the 
New England colonies early secured by law. " For the purpose of public instruction," 
said Daniel Webster, " we have held and do hold every man subject to taxation in 
proportion to his property, and we look not to the question whether he, himself, have 
or have not children to be benefited by the education for which he pays." The 
Massachusetts Act of 1642 was excellent as a beginning, but in 1647 a great advance 
was made, every township of fifty householders being obliged to have a school for all ; 
and every one of a hundred families to have also a grammar school in which youth 
could be fitted for college. Three years afterward Connecticut passed a similar law, 
and other New England colonies followed the good e.xample thus set. 

There was no school system in any colony south of Connecticut before the 
Revolution, though in all there were isolated and transient schools which did much 
both to express and form public sentiment. Elementary instruction was largely left to 
the family, and in Virginia and South Carolina the sons of those who could afford it, 
were sent abroad to be educated or were put under special tutors at home. But as to free 
schools, when Governor Berkeley of Virginia was asked by the English Commissioners 



380 OUR COUNTRY. 

what was being done in that colony for instructing the people, he replied "the 
same that is taken in out-of-tovvns in England, every man, according to his ability, 
instructing his children." And he also added what has become historic, " I thank God 
there are no free schools or printing presses in Virginia, and I hope we shall not have 
them these hundred years, for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and 
sects into the world, and printing has divulged them and libels against the best of 
governments. God keep us from both." And his hope was fulfilled, for he spoke in 
1671, and no system of public schools was attempted in Virginia till, in the time, and 
mainly by the influence of Jefferson. It was not schools, but free schools for all that 
Berkeley disliked. More than once he was a liberal subscriber for private academies, 
and though his views of common schools were for a long time more or less shared not 
only in the Southern colonies but also in parts of New England, yet both South 
Carolina and Maryland had academies of high rank; and the higher class of schools or 
academies, and so also colleges were early established in the New England colonies. 

Alongside of the first colleges of the colonies, and often connected with them, were 
grammar schools or academies of a high order. Before 1 800, New York had nineteen 
of these seminaries, and Massachusetts about the same number, and some of them were 
to be found in almost every State both North and South. Though they were called 
" free," they were not so in the modern sense of the term, for fees larger or smaller 
were required for admission to their privileges, but they were free in contrast to similar 
schools in England where admission was granted only to certain members of some 
church or organization. Beside the eight earliest colonial colleges, sixteen others were 
founded before iSoo; four during the Revolutionary War, and twelve soon after its 
close, so that the country then had as many if not more colleges in proportion to its 
population than it has to-day. 

After the Revolution and especially after the war of 1812, the country was making 
rapid and substantial progress not only in population and national prosperity, but in 
intelligence and educational interests. Plans for various kinds of schools were 
discussed, and permanent school funds which had been begun by Connecticut in 1733, 
and by New York in 1786, were commenced in New Jersey in 1820, in New Hampshire 
in 182 1, and in Maine about the same time. Rhode Island, Vermont, and Pennsylvania 
made large annual appropriations for schools. The " Literary fund" of Virginia in 1813 
was about two million dollars. And other Southern States made large appropriations 
of lands for the benefit of common schools. 

Lotteries were chartered for the benefit of schools and academies in most of the 
States. Congressional land grants were made for educational purposes, amounting in 
1876 to some eighty million acres or one hundred and twenty-five thousand square 
miles, a territory greater than all of Great Britain and Ireland. Of some thirty million 
dollars distributed from the United States Treasury in 1S36 to the different States, 
sixteen of the States set apart their quota, in whole or in part, for the benefit of 
common schools. Ten of the States in 1886 had $65,000,000 of invested school funds, 
giving an annual revenue of nearly three million dollars for school purposes, while the 
actual expenditure of these States, for the year, for the same purpose, was fifty-nine 
million, seven hundred and fifty-two thousand dollars. 

The " District " system took its rise in the colonial period when generally the 
district was co-extensive with the settlement or with the parish. State supervision had 
a gradual growth. Massachusetts created a State Board of Education in 1837; '^"'^ 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 



381 




4- 



twenty-three of the States now have such boards, while several other States have 
arrangements looking to the oversight of schools. County and city supervision is also 
very general, and the careful education of teachers, that they may be properly qualified 
for their work, is everywhere provided for by Normal schools, and by lectures, 
institutes, associations, journals, etc. According to some of the latest accessible 
statistics, from which most of the following figures are quoted, there are eighty-seven 
Normal schools in forty of the States, having over nineteen thousand pupils, while in 
eighty-one private and city schools, which have the same object in view, there are over 
thirteen thousand pupils preparing themselves for the work of 
teaching. Several of the larger colleges have professorships for 
the instruction and training of those who expect to be teachers ; 
and a large number of ably conducted periodicals, having the 
same object in view, have a wide circulation. 

Of the three hundred and sixty-five colleges reported in 
1887-8 thirty-three are State institutions, and ten, which were 
founded by wealthy individuals, have a productive endowment, 
exclusive of buildings and other properties, of twenty-five million 
dollars. The amount donated to colleges from 1872 to 1888 
inclusive, was nearly fifty-three million dollars, of which about 
three million was for colleges for women. Two hundred and 
sixty-eight of the colleges are denominational, and four-fifths of 
those founded since 1850 are more or less under the control 
of church organizations. Of the total attendance of nearly 
seventy thousand students in these colleges, over eleven thousand 
are in the State institutions, so that about eight per cent, of the 
colleges instruct nearly twenty per cent, of the students. Ten 
Ecclesiastical institutions have a property of about seventeen 
millions; eleven State institutions have about eighteen millions; 
and ten privately endowed institutions have about twenty-two 
millions. There is also a large number of colleges for women 
in different parts of the country, some of them richly endowed and 

thoroughly furnished 
for all that is needed 
for the education of the 
sex, and many of the 
leading colleges have 
annexed courses of 
study providing for the 
same important end. 

There are a hundred 

and fifty-two theological 

seminaries, representing 

V twenty-seven different 

J denominations, in 

\fu twenty-eight States 

'PM/Z^ and Territories, 

having 5,775 students; 





382 OUR COUNTRY. 

forty-nine law schools, with 2,744 students; a hundred and fifty-two medical schools, 
including dentistry and pharmacy, with 13,921 students; a hundred and five schools of 
science, with 17,086 students; two hundred and thirty-three commercial colleges, with 
43,706 students; sixteen hundred and seventeen secondary schools, with 160,137 
students; five hundred and forty-four kindergartens, with 25,952 pupils; 216,000 public 
or common schools, with an enrollment of 12,592,721 children, and an average daily 
attendance of 7,852,607 pupils, taught by 378,000 instructors; and also great numbers 
of private schools and academies in all the different States. The annual expenditures 
for the common schools is the enormous sum of $171,000,000, and $11,000,000 more are 
expended annually for the colleges and universities of the land, which are more than 
four hundred in number. 

Besides these, there are normal schools and schools of various grades as well as 
colleges and seminaries for colored people ; schools for the deaf and dumb, the blind, 
the feeble-minded ; and training schools of art, technology, stenography, telegraphy, 
wood and metallic engraving, for smithing, jewelry, carpentry, printing press 
manufacture, carriage building, and for training of nurses, and in cooking, sewing, 
and household duties; in fact, for instructing in almost every kind of work or 
employment known or in use in civilized society. 

In addition to all these, under land grants of more than nine million acres from 
the national government, aided in several States by State governments, forty-eight 
educational institutions have been established in the different States, having over six 
thousand students. The United States Military Academy at West Point, established 
in 1802, and since having greatly extended its course of study, gives gratuitous 
and thorough instruction to nearly fourteen hundred students in civil and military 
engineering and in all that pertains to the science or art of war. There are also under 
State, or local, or private control, some fifteen or more schools for military training, and 
in many of the colleges or academies military instruction is given by officers detailed 
for the purpose, from the national army. 

It was nearly fifty-six years after our independence before any formal instruction 
was given by the United States to those who were to be active in her navy. Chaplains 
on ships of war were required to act as school masters, and instruction was given at the 
different navy yards. But in 1845, under George Bancroft who was then Secretary of 
the Navy, the United States Naval Academy was opened at Annapolis, where thorough 
instruction is given to several hundred young men in all that prepares for the navy. 
There is also a national school on a government vessel at Brooklyn, seventy per cent, of 
whose five hundred graduates have become seamen, and another on the California 
training-ship, the Jamestown. The Naval War School at Newport, Rhode Island, is 
a school of graduate instruction for officers of the navy, and its specialized and very 
comprehensive course of instruction is not only of military and naval science, but such 
as to give intelligent and broad views in all that may make cultured officers and men. 

All through the country there are also houses of correction, orphans' homes, 
houses of detention, and industrial schools, which give certain kinds of education and 
training. Of reform schools proper there are si.xty-six in twenty-five of the States, 
having some fifteen thousand inmates, and supported at an annual cost to the public of 
some two million dollars. Besides these, there are some four or five hundred houses 
and asylums for orphans and for dependent and vagrant children, in which, since 1790, 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 



38- 



it is estimated that half a million have been cared for and educated. In the various 
Indian schools sustained by the government, there is a school enrollment of sixteen 
tliousand, with an actual daily attendance of about forty per cent. And of the school 
population of Alaska, numbering some six thousand, over twelve hundred are enrolled 
in thirteen schools. 

In addition to all these means of general instruction, there are great numbers of 
evening schools, museums of art and science, literary clubs, reading circles, scientific, 
philosophical and historical societies; libraries, public and mercantile, endowed school 
c" rict, free-town, professional, college, state and national, almost without number. 
The numberless newspapers and periodicals which are everywhere read, discussing all 
public measures and bringing news from every part of the earth, are another most 
important means of popular education, making the people of the United States more 
generally intelligent than those of any other nation on the Globe. While the 





population of the United States, in the last ten years, has increased twenty-four per 
cent, the school gain has been twenty-six per cent, thus showing that the interests of 
popular education are gaining more rapidly than even the population of the country. 
If it is true, as Buckle has said, that America is a country in which there are 
comparatively few men of great learning, it is true, as he adds, " that in no other 
country are there so few men of great ignorance." By increasing and continually 
improving systems of education, " under the divine blessing, may our country," in the 
language of Webster, " become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and 
terror, but of intelligence, of wisdom, of peace, and of liberty, upon which the whole 
world may gaze with admiration forever!" 

The statements and statistics thus far given were taken from the latest ofificial 
reports then before the public. The census of 1890, however, has given still later 
returns as to the public, private, and parochial schools of the country, which are 
embodied in the following table : — 



384 



OUR COUNTRY. 
Statistics of Public, Private and Parochial Schools in 1890. 



Alabama 

Alaska 

Arizona 

Arkansas 

California 

Colorado 

Connecticut 

Delaware 

District of Columbia 

Florida 

Georgia 

Idaho 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Montana 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New Hampshire.... 

New Jersey 

New Mexico 

New York 

North Carolina 

North Dakota 

Ohio 

Oklahoma 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode Island 

South Carolina 

South Dakota 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Utah 

Vermont 

Virginia 

Washington 

West Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Wyoming 

Total 



TEACHERS. 



6,291 
18 

233 
5,016 

5-)34 

2,376 

3,226 

701 

745 

2,577 

7.503 

389 

23,296 

13.285 

26,567 

12,260 

8,722 

2,673 

6,080 

3,826 

10.324 

15.990 

8,947 

7,386 

13,795 

549 

10,555 

251 

3,104 

4,465 
472 

31,703 
6,865 
1,894 

25,156 

14 
2,566 

24,493 
1,378 
4,321 
4,356 
8,376 

11.097 

680 

4,400 

7,523 

1,610 

5,491 
12.037 

259 



361,273 



WHITE 
PUPILS. 



186,794 

903 

7,828 

163.603 

221,756 

65,490 

125,073 
26,778 

23,574 

54,811 

209.330 

14,311 
773,265 
507,264 
492,620 
389,703 
352,955 

74,988 
139.592 
148,224 
370,893 
425.691 
281,678 
157,188 
587,510 

16,718 

239,556 

7,387 

59,813 
221,634 

18.215 

1,035,542 

208,844 

30,821 

797,439 

537 

63,354 

965,444 
54.170 
90,051 
66,150 

354,130 

312,802 
36,372 
65,5(.X) 

220,210 
55.432 

186,735 

350.342 
7,052 



11,236,072 



COLORED 
PUPILS. 



116,155 
74 1 



59,468 



1,432 

4,656 

13.332 

36.377 

133.232 



5,054 



647 
9.616 

54.612 
49,282 

87 
36,027 

599 

1. 341 

i8i 

193.431 
32,804 

89 
744 



12,438 



6,618 
117,017 



113,410 



101,602 
98,107 



108 
122.059 



6.558 



1,327,822 



PRIVATE 
PUPILS. 



22,953 



462 

11,070 

17,720 

4,631 

8,355 

1,126 

5,509 

5.059 

48,187 

1,104 

28,164 

17,968 

15.633 
11,382 
26,969 
17,627 
7,330 
11,153 
28,629 
10,216 

7,575 
20.072 

27,237 
1,038 

5,278 

78 

2,603 

15,250 

4,093 

56,787 

25.651 

578 

35,864 



4,143 
47,761 

3,814 
13,623 

2.042 
41,827 
22,310 
10,258 

4,284 
12,831 

3.328 

3,498 

5,176 
140 



686,106 



PAROCHIAL 

PUPILS. 



1,150 



418 
1,118 
7.123 
2,421 

13,459 

1.712 

2,402 

756 

287 



75.958 

25.537 

20,395 

9,018 

12,328 

7,148 

4.015 

8.943 

38,143 

34.779 
29,332 

1.311 
31.400 

384 
9.426 

325 
4.940 

27,827 

571 

103,093 

1,320 

1,608 

57.905 



616 

60,923 

5.940 

634 
1.537 
2.391 
4.573 

536 
2,461 
2,005 

954 

1,109 

52,200 

190 



673,601 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 



38S 



Not counting colleges for women, the percentage of students in the colleges of the 
United States as compared with the population was one to 1,655 ''^ 1880, and in 1890, 
one to 1,355, an increase of over 22 per cent. And if the average age of students is from 
16 to 24, then of the college age of the total population, there was in 1880 one to 302, 
and in 1890, one to 252, an increase in ten years of over 19 per cent. The increase of 
college attendance has fully kept up with the increase of population. 



V. — Religion. 

By the early colonists of what is now the United States, the true principle of 
toleration was imperfectly understood, and from many of the colonies persons were 
driven out because they differed from the prevailing or established form of church 
government and opinion. Ecclesiastical and civil policies were in most of the colonies 
so connected that non-conformity to the prevailing views led to the persecution and the 





banishment of dissenters. But as time went on, more just and 
liberal views gradually prevailed, until now, throughout the entire 
land, religion is free from any interference by either the Federal or 
State government, provided its doctrines or practices do not, as in- 
case of the Mormons, teach immorality that violates the laws of 
the land. All denominations have entire freedom in their opinions 
and forms of worship, each church directing its own affairs 
according to its views of truth and duty as believed to be made 
known by the word of God. 

In the historical sketches of the individual States no 
statistics were given as to the religious denominations, because 
the denominations are so numerous in most of the States 



386 OUR COUNTRY. 

that to give accounts of them would lead to great repetition, and also because 
the relative numbers of the various denominations are better made known by speaking 
of them as existing not in individual States, but in the country as a whole. 
The following tables, gathered mostly from the official reports of the different 
denominations, show the number of the churches, ministers and communicants in each 
of the various denominations in the United States as they were in 1889 and 1890, so 
that the gain of each for the year may also be seen. In the Roman Catholic church the 
numbers given in the tables of communicants for the year 1880, are the numbers of the 
persons connected with that denomination, but in 1890, the number given is the number 
of communicants. In all the other denominations the figures give the numbers of 
the conimiuiicants in their churches. 

iSoo 1880 

Local churches 3,030 97.09° 

Ministers 2,651 69,870 

Communicants 364.872 10,065,963 



Adventists 

Baptists 

Christian Union 

Congregationalists.. 

Friends 

German Evangelist Church. 

Lutherans 

Mennonites 

Methodists 

Moravians 

New Jerusalem 

Presbyterians 

Episcopalians 

Reformed 

Roman Catholics 

Salvation Army 

Unitarians 

Universalists 



Grand Total 1 42,767 



i8qo. 



CHURCHES 



1,575 

46,624 

1,500 

4,569 

763 

675 

6,971 

420 

50,680 

98 

100 

13.349 
5,159 

2,058 

7.424 



3SI 
721 



MINISTERS 



840 

32,017 

500 

4,408 

1,017 

560 

4.I5I 

605 

29,770 

III 

113 

9,786 

4.012 

1.378 

7.996 



491 
691 



98 436 



COMMUNI- 
CANTS. 



100,712 

4,078,589 
120.000 
475, 60S 
106,930 
125,000 
988,008 
100,000 

4,723,881 

11,219 

6,000 

1,180,113 
459,642 
277.542 

7.855,294 



20,000 

38.780 



20,667.318 



CHURCHES 



1.773 

48,371 

1.500 

4.689 

763 

850 

7.9II 

563 

54,711 

lOI 

100 

13,619 

5.227 

2.081 

8.765 

360 

407 

732 



151,261 



MINISTERS 



765 
32,343 

500 
4,640 
1,017 

665 
4.612 

665 

31.765 

114 

113 

9.974 

4,100 

1,379 

8,332 

1,024 

510 

685 



COMMUNI- 
CANTS. 



58,742 

4,292,291 
120,000 
491,985 
106,930 
160,000 

1,086,048 
102,671 

4,980,240 

11,358 

6,000 

1,229,012 
480,176 
282,856 

6,250,045 

8,771 
20,000 
42,952 



103.303 21.757,171 



These tables show that in 1890 there were in the United States 151,261 churches, 
103,303 ministers, and 18,180,923 communicants of the churches, or if we count all who 
are Roman Catholics as communicants, then there were 21,757,171 members of all the 

various churches. 

In addition to the statistics of the numbers connected with the various churches in 
the United States, many other facts might be stated showing the progress of religion. 
Over $75,000,000 are annually contributed to the support of the various churches, and 
$31,000,000 more are given for the general advancement of Christianity. Within the 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 



387 



•century now drawing to a close, 150,000,000 copies of the Bible have been printed in 
226 different languages, and by the American Bible Society, a copy of the Bible or of 
the New Testament is printed and ready for use, every minute of the year. Fifty 




;ars ago there were 502 
3ionary stations in 
;ign parts ; now there 
nearly 6,000. Then 
there were 653 ordained 
missionaries sent forth 
by the various Christian 
denominations ; now there are nearly 7,000 such' 
missionaries making known the truth in different 
parts of the world. ' Then there were but 1,266 
other laborers and helpers aiding the mission- 
aries in their work; now there are 40,552. 
Then Sunday schools were almost commencing 
their good work ; now hundreds of thousands 
of children are every Sabbath attending them, 
and are there taught the great truths and 
duties of Christianity. And though denomin- 
ations are numerous, the spirit of Christian 
unity is steadily gaining ground, and all 
denominations are working for the advancement 
of morality, the extension and influence of 
divine truth, the improvement of society and 
the true good of men. , 

IV.— Literature. 

The literature of a country, in its various 
stages, is a sure index of its progress. It 
expresses, and to a certain extent, shapes the 
character of a people, and is closely connected 
with their customs, laws and civil institutions, as 
well as with their social, domestic and business life. 



388 OUR COUNTRY. 

Beginning with the earliest colonies, those of Virginia and New England, the 
literature was limited in extent, and confined almost entirely to accounts of voyages to 
the new world and the experience of the earliest settlers, giving us the passing history 
of the times and notices of the progress and daily life of the colonies, by some of the 
more educated of the settlers. 

The earliest writers, with perhaps two exceptions, had no thought of "Literature." 
They simply described to their friends in the old country their voyages over the ocean, 
the attractions and advantages of the new world, the appearance and character of the 
natives, and their own life in the new settlements. Their narratives were, of necessity, 
printed in England, as there was no book printing press in this country till 1640. 

American literature may be considered under three distinct periods: i. The 
colonial period, extending from 1607 to about 1775, or the time of the revolutionary 
movement. 2. From that date to about 1820. 3. From the last mentioned date to the 
present time. 

The earliest American author was the noted Captain John Smith. Of his four 
American books, two, those of 1608 and 161 2, give full accounts of Virginia and of his 
explorations and adventures with the Indians, including the romance of Pocahontas; the 
third and fourth, published in 1616 and 1620, are on New England and its trials. He 
writes with clearness and force, and his descriptions are vivid and often dramatic, though 
at times overdrawn. He was full of enterprise and energy, a born leader of men, and in 
the first twenty years of the colony, did more than any other man for its success and 
prosperity. 

In this early period we have accounts of the country by George Percy, William 
Strachey, Alexander Whitaker, and John Pory, all full of interest, and also by George 
Sandys, a professed man of letters, who translated fifteen books of Ovid's Metamorphoses, 
and who was said by Dryden to be the best versifier of the age. To this early period 
belong Alsop's description of Maryland, and also the history of what is known as Bacon's 
Rebellion in Virginia. 

In New England, which was eminently a thinking community, education was more 
general than in the other colonies. Between 1630 and 1690, there were in its settlements 
as many graduates of Oxford and Cambridge as would be found in any population of 
similar size in England itself. Among the clergy were some men of distinguished 
scholarship, even as judged by the high standard of the seventeenth century. No other 
society of pioneers ever so honored study and learning, or so promptly and liberally 
provided for the universal education of the people, so that, as might be expected, New 
England, in literature, was in advance of other parts of the country. 

William Bradford, of the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock, afterward governor, has 
well been called "the father of American history." His "History of Plymouth 
Plantation," both as to time and authority, takes precedence of any other document on 
New England. He gives us, for twenty years, the annual record of the bright and also 
of the sombre aspects of colonial life, bringing the narrative down to 1646. John 
Winthrop, afterward governor, who was foremost among the colonists in weight of 
character and intellectual power, sketched the history of the colony for about the same 
length of time, from 1630 to 1649, giving clear views of the tone and spirit of New 
England society, and incidentally of his own wisdom and excellence. His definition of 
liberty has been said by a distinguished publicist to be the best in the English language. 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 389 

Johnson's " Wonder Working Providence in New England," carries on its history from 
1628 to 165 1, and tells of the founding of towns and churches in the extensions of the 
colony, and sketches the leading men of the time. 

In this period, too, come the narratives of the two great wars with the Indians, the 
Pequot War in 1637, and King Phillip's War in 1675, the former written, as well as 
fought, by Captain John Mason, and the latter narrated by Benjamin Church, and also 
by that noble hearted man, Daniel Gookin, who earnestly defended the Christian Indians 
from the charges of being unfaithful to the whites. Then we have Winslow's "Journal" 
and his "Good News from New England;" Higginson's "New England Plantations;" 
Wood's "New England Prospect;" Josseylyn's "Voyages" and his "Rarities of New 
England Discovered," all furnishing most interesting reading, and giving us accounts of 
the Indians, of the scenery, climate and productions of the new world, and of its birds, 
beasts, fishes, serpents, plants, etc. 

In the New England colonies, where it was said " they first planted a church and 
then set up civil government," and that the " gospel was the making of the towns," the 
literature, as might be expected, was largely theological. Of the distinguished preachers 
of England who first came to Massachusetts, Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepherd, and 
John Cotton were the most eminent. Hooker was a man of pre-eminent talents and 
piety, and of wonderful influence with men. His published writings number twenty-three 
titles, and of them a distinguished English writer has said, that " to praise them would 
be to lay paint on polished marble, or to add light to the sun." Shepherd was eminently 
practical in his writings, and his diary of meditations and experiences is rich in counsels 
for the Christian life. Cotton was a speaker of remarkable eloquence and great pulpit 
power, but his published writings do not sustain the reputation of his day, or account for 
his leading influence in the colony. Other ministers and writers of note were Peter 
Bulkley, John Norton, "William Hooke, Charles Chauncey, who became president of 
Harvard College; Nathaniel Ward, who wrote "The Simple Cobbler of Agawan," " full 
of fire, wit, whim, eloquence^ sarcasm, invective, patriotism and bigotrj^ ;" Samuel Stone, 
John Davenport, the fearless preacher of New Haven; Roger Clap, president of Yale 
College ; John Ehot, the noted apostle of the Indians, who translated the Bible into 
their language, and Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, and the apostle of 
freedom of conscience and religious toleration. 

The writings of these men were mostly on theological and religious subjects, though 
from many of them, as was the fashion of the day, we have specimens of the crude 
poetry of the times in the shape of elegies, eulogies, epitaphs, and theology in verse. 
The "Bay Psalm Book" was published in Cambridge in 1640, and soon became quite 
popular both in Great Britain and America, so that in less than a century some seventy 
editions were published in the two countries. In the same year the first book of original 
poetry, a volume by Anne Bradstreet, issued in New England, for a time had a wide 
circulation. Eliot also published his Indian Bible, which was the first edition of the 
Scriptures published in America. It was three years in printing, and it is said only three 
copies are known to be in the United States, and only one man is known who can read 
it. Next came a concordance of the Bible, by John Newman, the earliest work of 
the kind known. 

Some poetical writers of the period were John Norton, Uriah Oakes, Peter Folger, 
the maternal grandfather of Franklin, and Michael Wigglesworth, theologian and author 
of quaint religious verse, and several others who were eminent in their day. 



390 OUR COUNTRY. 

In the latter part of the colonial period, theology was the chief department of 
literature. Here we have the Mathers, father, son, and grandson, Richard, Increase and 
Cotton, all noted for their numerous writing; the last mentioned being the author of the 
" Magnolia," that stupendous repository of piety, superstition and credulity, the author 
of fourteen books in a single year, and of no less than three hundred and eighty-three in 
his life-time. Samuel SewalJ, John Wise and Jeremiah Dummer were noted writers of 
this period, as were several others of the clergy. In 1639, the first "Almanac for New 
England" was published. One for Boston was issued in 1676; one for Philadelphia in 
1688; one for New York in 1697; one for Rhode Island in 1728; and one for Virginia in 
1731. In 1733, Franklin began iiis famous " Poor Richard's Almanac," so noted for its 
" scraps of wisdom, crumbs of history, sketches of verse, proverbs, jests, etc." From 
several writers of this period we have historical works of value, and from Thomas Prince 
"The Chronological Histoiy of New England," in the form of annals, the best historical 
work published in America up to that date. 

In this period, too, Samuel Willard published his "Complete Body of Divinity," 
and Solomon Stoddard issued numerous able publications on theological and other 
subjects. But the great author of the age and of the country was Jonathan Edwards, 
of whom Sir James Mackintosh declares that in profound thought and subtle and 
powerful argument " he was perhaps unmatched, certainly unsurpassed among men ;" 
and of whom Chalmers says that " he was the first, not only in America, but in any 
country, or in any age;" and of whom a prominent historian said, that "it is perhaps 
impossible to name any department of intellectual exertion, in which, with suitable 
outward facilities, he might not have achieved superior distinction." His work on the 
"Will" has been pronounced a work of unequalled power; and of his "History of 
Redemption," Bancroft has said: "It is the only purely philosophic universal history 
ever written." 

Other prominent theologians in this period were Jonathan Dickinson, John 
Witherspoon and Samuel Davies, all presidents of Princeton College; James Blair, 
president of William and Mary College; Samuel Johnson, president of Columbia 
College, and father of American episcopacy; Mather Byles, a faithful minister, but noted 
chiefly for his wit and humor; Ezra Stiles, president of Yale College; John Woolman, 
a Quaker writer and preacher, and one of the first of this country to write against 
slavery ; Benjamin Franklin, whose essays and maxims, as well as his eminence in 
philosophic, scientific and political matters, have given him a world wide reputation. 
The historians and annalists of this period are numerous and their writings are of value. 
William Hubbard wrote the history of New England; William Stitt, on the discovery 
and settlement of Virginia; Thomas Hutchison, on the settlement of Massachusetts; 
Cadwallader Colden, on the five Indian nations; and David Brainerd, on the Indians to- 
whom he was a missionary. The poetry of this period, with but few exceptions, has no 
great literary merit, and was of limited extent. 

Passing on to the revolutionary period, we come first to the many pamphlets, letters, 
reports of speeches, and public documents called forth by the times, the high ability and 
practical wisdom of which were acknowledged by Lord Chatham, who said that " many 
of these productions rivalled the master pieces of antiquity." Distinguished among 
these early pamphleteers and writers, were James Otis, Josiah Quincy, Richard Henry 
Lee, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Marshall, Timothy 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 



391 



Pickering, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Cotesworth 
Pinckney, John Jay, and others whose writings or impassioned eloquence roused the 
entire land to resist the oppressions of the mother country and to carry out the plans of 
national independence. The "Common Sense" of Thomas Paine was sensible and 

influential, but of his 



"Age of Reason," 
Franklin, refusing to 
recommend it, said to 
the author: "If men 
are so wicked with the 
restraints of religion, 
what would they be 
without it?" adding, 
"it is no mark of one's 
manliness or wisdom to 
spit in his mother's face." 
The great State 
paper of the period was 
the Declaration of 
Independence by 
JefTerson, which, for 
dignity and eloquence, 
and its strong and clear 
statement of the 
oppressions of Great 
Britain, and for the 
powerful influence it 
has exerted, stands 
unrivalled among works 
of its class in any age 
or nation of the world. 
Jefferson also published 
" A Summary of the 
Rights of British 
America," and interest- 
ing "Notes of Virginia," 
and he left a mass of 
correspondence of great 
value to our civil and 
political history. The 
writings of Washington 
hold a distinguished 
place in this period for 
their lofty patriotism and strong common sense, and his " Farewell Address," for 
thought, expression and wise counsel, is well nigh a model. Alexander Hamilton, who, 
by turns was soldier, lawyer, statesman and writer, took an important part in the 
formation of our national Constitution, and according to Guizot, " there is not one 




WILD FLOWERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 



392 OUR COUNTRY. 

element of order, strength or durability in it that he did not powerfully contribute to 
introduce." The valuable papers of the Federalist were written chiefly by him, though 
in preparing them he had the important aid of James Madison and John Jay. 

Among the local histories of this period were those of New Hampshire by Belknap, 
Connecticut by Trumbull, Massachusetts by Minot, Vermont by Williams, Pennsylvania 
by Prowd, and of more general interest, the histories of New England by Hannah 
Adams ; of South Carolina by Ramsay, who also wrote the Life of Washington ; the 
Annals of America by Holmes; the Life of Washington by Marshall; that of Patrick 
Henry by Wirt ; the travels of Carver, one of the first to penetrate west of the 
Mississippi; the Journals of Ledyard, the intrepid explorer of Africa; and the Journals 
of Lewis and Clark, who first crossed the Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the 
Columbia river and led the way to what was like a new world. 

The theologians of this period were ably represented by the younger Jonathan 
Edwards, a son of the great metaphysician, and author of several profound and able 
works; by Samuel Hopkins, a writer of distinguished ability; by Timothy Dwight, 
whose system of divinity is both eloquent and able; by William White, one of the 
first bishops of the Episcopal Church in this country ; by Joseph Bellamy, a man 
of wonderful eloquence and power; by the celebrated John M. Mason, Joseph 
Buckminster and several others who might be mentioned. 

In the department of science in this period were men like the two John Winthrops, 
John Ray, John Bartram, David Rittenhouse, an able astronomer and mathematician ; 
Benjamin Rush, distinguished also as a medical writer ; Alexander Wilson, whose work 
on the birds of America is still in high repute ; and Benjamin Thompson (Count 
Rumford), eminent for his scientific works. Lindley Murray is well known for his work 
on Grammar. 

Of poets, Philip Freneau was for a time highly popular; and John Trumbull, who wrote 
" McFingal ;" Joel Barlow, author of the " Columbiad ;" Timothy Dwight, who wrote 
"The Conquest of Canaan;" Joseph Hopkinson, who wrote "Hail Columbia;" and 
Robert Treat Paine, whose " Adams and Liberty " was the rallying song of the 
Federalist party, all in their day were highly regarded. About the only novelist of this 
period was Charles Brockden Brown, who wrote several tales, now but little known even 
by name. Among the miscellaneous writers whose productions appeared chiefly in 
newspapers and magazines, were Francis Hopk'nson, a humorous writer, and author of 
"The Battle of the Kegs;" Henry Breckenridge, who wrote the vigorous satire, 
" Modern Chivalry ;" Joseph Dennie, one of the earliest of our magazine writers and 
editors, and others well known or even prominent in their day, but comparatively 
unknown now. 

The last period in American literature, from about 1820 to the present time, is in 
marked contrast to the period before it, both in the variety and extent as well as the 
finish of its productions. In 1820 Sydney Smith, in the Edinburgh Review, sneered at 
the poverty of American literature, and it must be confessed with some reason. But 
since that time there is no department of human knowledge which has not been 
explored and ably set forth by American authors. In history, jurisprudence, poetry, 
natural science, theology, medicine, fiction, essays, and in magazine and newspaper 
literature, the advance has been wonderful, and to give even a list of authors and notices 
of their works might fill volumes. As statesmen, we have men like Webster, Clay, 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 393 

Calhoun, Benton, and John Quincy Adams; in jurisprudence, Marshall, Kent, Stor)-, 
Greenleaf and Parsons ; as poets, Sprague, Bryant, Halleck, Drake, Hillhouse, Percival, 
Foe, Willis, Brainard, Stoddard, Aldrich, Holmes, Pierpont, Longfellow, Lowell, 
Stedman, and Whittier; in history, Bancroft, Ticknor, Prescott, Parkman, Motley, 
Hildreth, Higginson, and Palfrey, to say nothing of local historians and industrious 
analysts ; in literature, Irving, Verplanck, Paulding, Kennedy, Cooper, Sparks, Everett, 
Channing, Hawthorne, Ticknor, Thoreau, Phillips, Whipple, Sands, Holland, Fisher, 
Draper, Starr King, Emerson, Warner, Howells, James, Mitchell, Alcott, Stockton, and 
Mrs. Stowe, whose " Uncle Tom's Cabin " has had a wider reading than any work ever 
written by a woman ; as lawyers and advocates, Hamilton, Parsons, Wirt, Pinckney, 
Binney, and Choate ; in political economy, Wayland, Lieber, and Carey ; in 
constitutional history and principles, Wheaton, Livingston, Sedgwick, Parsons, and 
Woolsey ; in theology and religion, Stuart, Channing, the Alexanders, H. B. Smith, 
Crosby, and Charles Hodge, whose theology is now a text book to most of the 
evangelical denominations in the land ; in philology, Webster, Worcester, Whitney ; in 
language, Duponceau, Marsh, Pickering, Gallatin, and Schoolcraft ; in works of travel, 
Ledyard, Hillard, Silliman, Stephens, Taylor, Robinson, Thompson, and Stanley; in 
natural history, Audubon, Wilson, and Agassiz ; in botany, Gray, Eaton, and Dewey ; 
in mineralogy, and geology, Hitchcock, Shepherd, Silliman, and Dana; in mathematics, 
Bowditch, Davis, Day, Pierce, and Loomis ; in medicine, Dewees, Beck, Rush, Hosack, 
Parker, Wood, and Agnew ; in education, Mann, Barnard, and Hopkins; in applied 
science, Henry, Morse, and Edison ; in astronomy, Mitchell, and Peters ; in the science 
of war, Scott, Hardee, Upton, Mahan, Dahlgreen, and Barnard ; in the fine arts, 
Smibert, Copley, Trumbull, Jarvis, Allston, Greenough, Story, and Church ; in school 
books of a high character, a host of able writers ; and in architecture, agriculture, 
statistics, mechanics, memoirs, antiquities, biography, essays, reviews, magazines, and 
newspapers, names without number, and of decided ability. 

In all these departments, style has improved, originality, research and industry 
have been manifest, and the literary standard has been steadily rising, until now 
American books on almost every subject are published abroad as well as at home, and 
acknowledged to be of standard excellence. The activity and enterprise which, as a 
people, we carry into business and public improvement, extend also to thought and 
mental progress. The extent of our country, the variety of its climate and scenery, 
its lofty mountains and fertile valleys, our broad and noble rivers and inland lakes; the 
vast stretch of our ocean border, where now the storms sweep in their power, and now 
the music of the rippling waves lulls the senses as twilight comes on; and our immense 
works of public improvement — all these things influence and shape the literature of our 
people, and mould it to the likeness of the land in which it originates. Everything in 
the country tends to make us original in thought, bold in expression, vivid in 
imagination, and impressive in language, so that we may well expect, in the progress of 
our national life, to see our oratory and eloquence, our poetry and prose, our works 
alike of science and art, our published volumes and daily papers, take on a national 
type and excellence far beyond what are now known. 

Already our publications in the various departments of which we have spoken are 
libraries in themselves. Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, out of its 
14,243 names, gives us 2,051 names of American writers devoted to literature, and if to 



394 OUR COUNTRY. 

these we add the 2,164 of ^^'^^ clergy, the 462 under the title of Art, the 564 under 
Science, and the 586 under Education, we have no less than 5,827 persons in the history 
of our country more or less contributing to its literature. And of poets alone, Griswold 
in his collection of American poets, published some fifty years ago, gives the names of 
no less than ninety-six persons whom he considers worthy of being counted as 
American poets, and seventy more who, he says, if they had written more might justly 
be ranked with the former. And since he wrote the number has been nearly doubled. 
New names are constantly coming forward to fill the places of those who are passing 
away, and to add to the bright galaxy of our country's authorship. As every age of 
the past has brought forth its distinguished orators, statesmen, jurists, historians, 
essayists, and poets, so the future will do the same. The sons and daughters of genius 
may have their various types of thought and expression, different as their faces, but 
each may be instinct with life and strength and intelligence, with thought to instruct, 
imagination to quicken, and beauty to attract us, and so, as we would hope and 
believe, the improvement will go on till the millennium of intellect and taste shall by 
and by come in the fullness of its glory, to continue till time shall be no more. 

American literature, especially in its later periods, owes much to its female writers. 
Several of these, Anne Bradstreet, Hannah Adams, Mrs. Sigourney, Mrs. Sedgwick, and 
some others have already been mentioned. In addition to these may well be mentioned 
Abigail Adams, Mrs. Child, Mrs. Whitman, Mrs. Stephens, Mrs. Kirkland and Margaret 
Fuller (Countess Ossoli), a thorough scholar and a critic of ability in art, literature, and 
social science. Of later days are Mrs. Stowe, Mrs. Ellis, Mrs. Southworth, Miss 
Warren, Mrs. Judson (Fanny Forester), Mrs. Welby, Mrs. Howe, author of the " Battle 
Hymn of the Republic," Mrs. Neal, Mrs. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood), the Carey 
sisters, Mrs. Hunt (H. H.), Mrs. Terhune (Marion Harland), Mrs. Parton, and more 
recently, such writers as Mrs. Jewett, Miss Murfree, and others. 

In considering American literature, our magazine and newspaper writers are not to 
be overlooked ; for in no country do the monthly, weekly, and daily journals have so 
wide a circulation or so great an influence as in this; and for terse, condensed, and well 
put thought some of them are models. 

The first newspaper in America was published in Boston, in 1690, under the name 
of Public Occurrences, but it was at once suppressed by the authorities for speaking too 
freely of public matters, so that a second number was never issued. It was not till 1704 
that the News-Lettcr of Boston, the first newspaper that lived, was issued in that city. 
But the fashion soon spread, so that by 1765 forty-three newspapers had been 
established in the various colonies, of which eleven were in Massachusetts. Most of 
them were diminutive sheets, mostly filled with items of news and advertisements. It 
was not till the time of the Revolution that journalism began to be an important 
literary force, and that public questions and interests were discussed in the papers with 
both freedom and talent. And from that day to this the periodical press has been 
steadily extending its circulation and gaining in influence, until now there are probably 
as many newspapers published in the United States as in all the world beside. In 1840 
the daily and weekly and other periodicals of the country were 1,404; in 1850,2,032; 
in 1860,3,542; in 1870,4,896; in 1880,7,954; in 1890, 19,01 1, sending out for the year 
some 3,000,000,000 numbers, enough to give to every person some fifty copies of some 
publication every year. Of these periodicals 955 were religious publications, having a 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 



395 



circulation of 3,972,650 copies each issue. And 
as tlie reading of newspapers and periodicals is 
well nigh universal, their influence on the 
literature as well as the intelligence of the 
people is very great, for they contain not only 
news, but essays, tales, poems, discussions, and 
information of every kind. Some of our ablest 
and most popular writers, in every age of 
the country, have been editors, and scores 
of men might be mentioned, among them 
some of the most famous of our authoib, ^. 

who have been connected with the 
periodical press. The character of 
newspaper and magazine 
writing has for years 
been steadily 
improving, 







i:! 



MOUNTAIN FLOWERS, 



till now some of the best talent of the 
land is engaged in its work, and it is 
an important part of the literature of 
the country. 

Inventions, Discoveries, Improvements. 

The progress of a people, as well as its genius and enterprise, 

is seen in its inventions, in its application of old principles to new 

uses, and in all its improvements in mechanical art which abridge 

distance, annihilate time, extend commerce, aid agriculture, economize 

labor, transmit speech, give to night the brilliancy of day, prevent 

or alleviate pain, give prosperity to business, and comfort and 

enjoyment to everyday life. And in all such inventions and 

' "*"*^^. improvements no country has been more prominent or 

successful than the United States. 

A leading London paper gives a list of fifteen 
American inventions and discoveries which it says " have 



396 OUR COUNTRY. 

been adopted all over the world." These it enumerates as " the cotton gin, planing 
machine, grass mower and grain reaper, rotary printing press, navigation by steam, 
hot air or caloric engine, sewing machine, India rubber industry, manufacture of 
horse shoes and nails by machinery, sand blast for carving and cutting, gauge-lathe, 
grain elevator, artificial ice making, electro magnet, and the composing or type-setting 
machine for printers." 

Beside these, for which credit is given to the inventive genius of Americans, there 
are many other inventions and improvements everywhere in use in the country and so 
connected with every day life as to be worthy of notice. Some of these are of American 
origin, and some American improvements on the inventions of other countries, but all 
showing as well as aiding in the progress of our country. Among these are the 
type-writer, sewing machine, steel pen, sulphur and phosphorus match, electric light, 
revolving pistol, repeating rifle and shot gun, gatling gun, telegraph, telephone, 
spectroscope, screw propeller, monitors, natural gas, petroleum or kerosene, ocean steam 
ships, street and elevated railways, ocean cables, steam fire engines, chemical fire 
extinguishers, anaesthetics and painless surgery, nitro-glycerine, giant powder, dynamite, 
electro-plating, pneumatic tubes, electric bells, cheap postage, vestibule cars, cantilever 
bridges, several new metals, etc., etc. Some of these are of foreign, and some of home 
invention, and all are so extensively used in this country that a brief notice of several of 
them may be interesting and instructive as connected with our progress as a people. 

The Cotton Gin. — One of the earliest and most valuable inventions of the country, 
which has given immense value to our Southern States, was that of the cotton gin by 
Eli Whitney, in 1793. As early as 162 1 cotton seeds had been planted in Virginia as an 
experiment, and at a later date the plant was introduced into Carolina. Small quantities 
of cotton had now and then been exported, but when, in 1784, eight bags of it were sent 
to Liverpool it was seized at the custom house on the ground that so much cotton could 
never have been grown in America. But as the production of the crop increased the 
great drawback to its value was the difficulty of separating the fibre from the seeds. 
It was a full day's work for a man to clean a single pound of cotton, a rate so slow 
as to make the extensive production of the crop unprofitable. 

To meet the difficulty Mr. Eli Whitney, then a school teacher in Georgia, invented 
the cotton gin, in which by passing the cotton through fine wire teeth the seed is 
separated from the fibre, and by which a thousand pounds of cotton are as thoroughly 
cleaned by one man's daily work as a single pound could be by hand. In 1791, only 
2,000,000 pounds had been raised in the South; in 1793, the amount was 5,000,000 
pounds; in 1820, 160,000,000; in 1880, 3.200,000,000; and in 1890, 3,461,031,600 pounds, 
or 8,652,579 bales of 400 pounds each, of which about 2,000,000 bales were exported to 
England. And a cotton-picking machine has been invented which it is claimed will 
save 80 per cent, in the cost of picking the crop, and if so, will almost, if not quite equal 
the value of the cotton gin. In addition to the value of the cotton itself, the cotton 
seed of the eight million bales of cotton, which is over four million tons, is worth some 
seventy million dollars for oil, oil-cake and feed. And there are in the cotton-growing 
regions 194 cotton-seed oil mills, with a capital of $20,000,000; and forty of these mills 
have fertilizer factories in connection with their oil business, using the cotton-seed meal, 
after the oil has been extracted, as a basis for manufacturing fertilizers. It shows the 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 397 

progress of the cotton-growing region, that in 1880 there were but forty of such 
cotton-seed mills with a capital of only $3,500,000. 

Though Whitney's invention made the prosperity of the cotton growing States, 
agriculturally, commercially, and financially, and in one important department changed 
the commerce of the world, all his rights in the patent were shamefully disregarded, 
and he was deprived of the profits he should have received from his invention. 

The Rotary Printing Press. — -The art of printing is of comparatively modern origin, 
some four hundred and fifty years having elapsed since the first book was issued from 
the press. The great discovery of forming each of the letters on a separate type so that 
they could be taken one by one and combined in printing was made between 1420 and 
1438, and is said to have been made about the same time by Laurens Coster and also by 
Johann Gutenberg. The types at first used were made of wood, but metal soon came 
into use. Between 1450 and 1455 Gutenberg succeeded in printing the Bible; and 
in 1471 Caxton introduced printing into England, and in 1474 put through the press 
the first book ever printed in the English tongue. Of the ninety-nine productions of his 
press, thirty-eight survive in single copies or in fragments only. 

The first kind of printing press was a simple and crude affair. It was worked 
slowly by hand, producing a single small sheet at a time, which had to be pressed four 
times to complete the impression on both sides of the paper. Then came the Stanhope 
press ; then the Columbian ; then the cylinder press which was propelled by steam 
and by which the impressions were made, not from flat surfaces, but from revolving 
cylinders to which types were attached ; then the Hoe press in which stereotype plates 
took the place of movable types, a machine which from each of its cylinders could print 
two thousand papers an hour; then the Walter press, which printed both sides of the 
paper at the same time, and some seventeen thousand copies in an hour; then others, 
each of which, like those first mentioned, claimed some improvement on those that had 
been before them ; then the Hoe perfecting and folding press, which not only printed 
but folded the sheets; and these followed by others, each claiming improvements, till 
now we have the great sextuple press, weighing fifty-eight tons, and printing ninety 
thousand four-page papers in an hour, or twenty-five copies every second, and using up 
twenty-six miles of paper in an hour. Franklin's press printed only a hundred sheets 
in an hour, and Eliot's Indian Bible, of which but one sheet was printed in a day, was 
three years in the process of being printed. Now the American Bible Society prints, 
binds, and every way completes a copy of the Bible or Testament every minute for the 
three hundred and twelve working days of the year. Some of the most important 
improvements of the printing press are of American invention. 

Type Setting Maeliines. — Type setting by hand is comparatively a slow process, 
each letter having to be taken by itself and put in its proper place for printing. To 
facilitate the work, several inventions have been patented for setting and distributing 
type by machinery. In 1820 Mr. William Church of Connecticut, patented a composing 
machine, but it did not become popular. One was afterward invented by Copenhagen, 
which met with better success, and was exhibited in the Paris exposition in 1855, 
setting up and distributing type at the same time. Its capacity was considered equal 
to that of three compositors. In 1856 Mr. Robert Hattersley, of England, invented a 
machine which set from four thousand to six thousand types per hour, and which also 
distributed the type after it had been used. 



o9S 



OUR COUNTRY. 




PENNSYLVANIA SCENERY. 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 399 

In 1871, Mr. A. Mackie, an Englishman, invented a machine which worked by steam, 
and in the same year a machine, also worked by steam, was invented in Warrington, 
England, of which it was claimed that it would do the work of eight men. Several 
other machines have been invented each of which seems to have worked well, but none 
have come into general use, owing to the cost of construction and repair, the amount 
of type-breaking which they cause, and their liability to get out of order. The 
machines show great ingenuity, and in perfected forms may by-and-by come into 
general use, and if so, may prove an important addition to the industries of the country. 
It is hoped they will be so perfected that the operator of the telegraph, from the sounds 
of the instrument, may at once set type by machinery without first writing the message. 

Type-zvriiers. — Another important and comparatively recent invention is that of the 
type-writer, a machine for printing with movable types, and so to take the place of writing 
with the pen. The first patent for a practical machine of this kind was taken out in 186S. 
The types were arranged in parallel rows, and the impression or printing was done by a 
striker or plunger which was moved by keys, as in the piano, the operator pressing the 
key corresponding to the letter which he wished to use, and thus rapidly printing 
words. In other type-writers the letters are placed on the periphery of a wheel, and 
are brought to the printing point by its revolution. In most type-writers the types 
are at the end of levers, which are so arranged as to strike at a common printing point, 
and the paper is made to pass that point by machinery, and so receives the impression 
of the types. For a long time type-writers were used by but few persons, but now 
they are in use almost everywhere, in office work, for correspondence, etc. There is 
quite a variety in their construction, there being numerous patents for them issued 
to different inventors. Their use is steadily increasing. 

Metallic Pens. — In ancient times a kind of reed was used for writing, though 
sometimes letters were printed with fine hair pencils or brushes, as among the Chinese of 
the present day. Quill pens are said to have come into use soon after the introduction 
of paper; the name pen coming hom />c/iiia, the Latin word for feather, as pens were 
made from the quills of birds. Early in the century, Mr. Joseph Gillot, a working jeweler 
of Birmingham, England, accidentally split one of his fine steel tools, and being suddenly 
called on to sign a receipt, and not finding his quill pen at hand, he used the split tool as 
a ready substitute, and this incident is said to have suggested to him the idea of making 
pens of metal. 

Carrying out the idea with secrecy and promptitude, he began making pens of steel, 
in which he was so successful that he invented machinery for making them. As at first 
made by hand, a single pen was retailed for half a crown, a price which was gradually 
reduced to sixpence. By the machinery which he invented, he was able in 1821 to sell 
his improved pens at $35.00 per gross, which was then thought quite cheap. Better 
pens are now sold from the same manufactory for twopence a gross, that is, over eight 
hundred pens are now sold for what in 1821 was the price of a single one. And one 
hundred and fifty million pens are made in that factory annually. 

In 1870 there were three factories of steel pens in the United States, and in 1880 
there were several others. In 1870 there were in the United States twenty-one 
manufactories of gold pens and pencils, employing two hundred and fifty hands in the 
work. And fountain pens, giving a constant supply of ink, are also extensively made 



400 OUR COUNTRY. 

and used. The art of making metallic pens has been so perfected that ten millions of 
the tiny bits of steel can be cut into shape and prepared for completion by one man in a 
single day. The manufacture of steel and other metallic pens has been as important an 
invention as any connected with business and education since that of printing. 

Sewing Machines. — -Sewing machines are one of the most important inventions of 
the century, and like the stocking-frame, which in priticiple they resemble, they are the 
invention of a poor mechanic, striving to lessen the labor of his wife and other poor 
women. Elias Howe, a native of Massachusetts, was the inventor. After many 
experiments and long and patient labor, he completed the first working machine, the 
patent for which was granted to him in May, 1841. For a long time he met with 
discouragement in this country, and going to England, sold his patent for that country 
to a stay-maker for $I,000 and a royalty of $15.00 on each machine made and used. 
When he came back he found his American patent had been pirated by a wealthy 
company, but asserting his rights in the courts and finally establishing them, his 
machine soon came into use and he became a wealthy man. 

His machine made what is called the lock-stitch, but since his invention many 
improvements and modifications have been introduced by other inventors. The 
principal ones of these are: i. Machines that work with one thread and with a needle 
pointed at each end which is pushed through by pincers on one side and caught by 
pincers on the other, and so pulled backward and forward for its work. 2. A single 
thread machine which makes a running stitch, which was patented in 1844. 3. A single 
thread machine which makes the chain or tambour stitch, in which the thread is looped 
upon itself by a curved shuttle after it has passed through the cloth. This was patented 
in 1848. 4. The Wheeler and Wilson, which is a double thread machine, and is used 
extensively both in this country and in Great Britain. Special sewing machines are also 
made for sewing leather in binding books, or for shoes, for sewing harness, gloves, 
embroidery, and for various other purposes. One for sewing the soles upon boots and 
shoes is said to have sewed a hundred and fifty pairs of soles on army boots in a single 
day. Sewing machines are now made and sold by the tens of thousands. The Singer 
Company is said to have made a hundred and forty-one thousand of their machines in a 
single year. 

Mozving and Reaping Machines. — From time immemorial, grass and grain have been 
cut with the scythe or the sickle. The sickles in use among the ancient Jews, Egyptians, 
and Chinese, seem to have differed but little from those in use at the present day. 
The process of reaping and mowing, however, by the sickle and scythe, were so tedious 
and expensive that during the present century many attempts have been made to do 
the work by machinery, and in the last fifty years these attempts have been crowned 
with complete success. 

Reaping by machinery, however, is not a modern invention, though the great 
improvements in the machines have given them about all their value. Pliny, the elder, 
who lived in the first century, describes a reaping machine which he saw in Gaul. It was 
a large van with projecting teeth on the side, driven on two wheels through the standing 
grain by oxen pushing it from behind. And four hundred years later, Palladius saw the 
same kind of machine working in Gaul. 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 4OI 

» 

In modern times Mr. Capel Loft, in 1785, suggested a machine somewhat Hke the 
ancient one first spol<en of. Between that time and 185 1 the patents taken out for 
reaping and mowing machines were numerous. In 1826, Mr. JPatrick Bell, of Scotland, 
constructed an efficient and simple machine which long continued in use, and several 
features of which are still used in later machines, Before 1832 there were eight patents 
taken out for machines. 

In 1833, Obed Hussey, and in 1834, C. H. McCormick, each invented such machines, 
and other machines have also been patented. Most of these carry mechanical binders, 
binding the grain as it is cut, with wires or twine, thus saving the labor of many men, 
and enabling them to do other work. Reapers and mowers are now used everywhere, 
and the work they do is an hundredfold what was accomplished by the old-fashioned 
method of hand work. 

In connection with reapers and mowers, mention may well be made of threshing and 
winnowing machines which are of modern invention. In former times the ripened grain 
when reaped was spread upon the ground, and then trampled on by oxen, or beaten out 
by the flail till the kernel was separated from the straw, and then what had been beaten 
out was tossed in the air till the wind had blown away the chaff from the kernel which 
was thus secured for use. Now both these processes are superseded by machines which 
at the same time thresh out the grain and by rapidly moving fans blow away the chaff, 
a single machine doing the work of a score of men and thus largely saving both time 
and expense. 

Planing Machines. — The ordinary hand plane is known to almost everyone. It 
did its work well but slowly, giving to wood, for its various uses, a smooth and even 
surface. The planing machine, which is an important modern invention, accomplishes 
the same kind of work by the power of machinery, either by pushed, or more commonly, 
by rapidly revolving knives, one machine doing in the same time the work of sixty men. 

Planing machinery is also applied to metal of all kinds. In this case, however, the 
chisel-edged steel cutter is pressed down upon the metal and the latter is moved forward 
against it by powerful machinery. And when a groove of a given width has been cut, 
the metal is returned to its first place, and then is again pressed forward till another 
groove is cut in the same manner, and so on till the work is completed. By this process, 
slow as it may seem, metals are smoothed or worked in various ways with a facility and 
rapidity before unknown. The value of the planing machine, as applied to every kind 
of dressed wood 'Work, as for doors, boards, the wood work for buildings and for furniture 
of all kinds, can hardly be over-estimated. 

Bessemer Steel. — The old method of making steel from iron was a slow and expensive 
process, and made the cost of steel so great that its use was comparatively limited. But 
the discovery of Sir Henry Bessemer, made some twenty-five years ago, has changed all 
this, and made steel so cheap that it is everywhere taking the place of iron except for 
minor purposes. It is a process for changing molten iron into molten steel cheaply and 
almost instantly, and so substituting steel for iron in some of the most important 
industries of the world. 

Before this invention, steel had but a limited and comparatively insignificant use; 
now its production is more than a third of the total consumption of iron in the world. 
With the exception of printing, the mariner's compass, the discovery of America, the 
26 



402 OUR COUNTRY. 

introduction of the steam engine, and tlie application of electricity to the telegraph, 
telephone, and lighting of streets and dwellings, but few, if any, discoveries more 
mark the world's progress, or are of greater usefulness than this. It reduces 
immensely the cost of railroads and their repairs, so that they can be extended to new 
regions; diminishes the cost of transportation so as to bring to the markets of the world 
products that otherwise would not pay for removal, and so cheapens transportation ; 
increases production ; multiplies the resources of the people, and thus benefits the country. 
Since the introduction of this great invention, and it is said largely owing to it, the 
cost of railroad transportation has been reduced two-thirds, and the difference to the 
country in a single year has been reckoned as $i,ooo,000,(X)0, a large part of which saving 
is due to the fact that steel rails give greater strength and stability, and so the capacity 
of increased loads in transportation, thus bringing the distant areas of a vast country 
nearer to each other, and giving ready and profitable market to products that otherwise 
would be of little or no value to the producers. 

The Screw Propellor. — The screw propeller which has so extensively taken the 
place of the paddle wheel, both in vessels of war and in commercial vessels, is 
comparatively a late invention. The screw, as applied to vessels, was first used to 
produce motion in 1802, by Mr. Shorter, an Englishman, but the discovery was at that 
time comparatively valueless, as the steam engine had not then been applied to 
navigation. But in 1832, by Mr. B. Woodcroft ; in 1836, by Mr. F. P. Smith; and in 
1837, by Mr. Ericson, improvements were made in its form and application, till now it 
is in almost universal use. Sometimes it has two, sometimes four, and sometimes 
six blades or arms, and these arms vary in length, some, as in the Great Eastern, being 
twenty-four feet in diameter. Many vessels are built with two screws, one under each 
quarter, which not only adds to the power for motion, but is a great advantage in 
rapidly turning a vessel. The screw is generally preferred to the wheel for navigation, 
and its invention and use mark, as well as aid, the progress of commerce. 

Electric Lighting. — All known methods of generating electricity can produce light, 
and a century ago we find Cavallo speaking of a light which he thought was different 
from the electric spark, produced by friction. But light from battery electricity was 
first discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy in 18 10, when on breaking the continuity of 
the electric current a brilliant light was produced. In 1820, Oersted proved, as he 
thought, the identity of electricity and magnetism, and in 1831, Faraday, by his great 
discovery of induced currents, was the first to make practical the application of 
electricity to the production of artificial light. 

It was not, however, till 1853, that the magnetic electro machine was actually 
applied for this purpose, and in 1857, the first practical trial which was successful took 
place. Since then inventions and improvements have been made by various persons, 
and lately wonderful improvements by Edison, who has made electric lighting for 
streets and buildings simple and everywhere common. Though thus far more 
expensive than gas, the wonderful brilliancy of its light is likely to make its use 
everywhere general, and the facts that it does not consume the oxygen of the air, and 
causes so little heat, are likely to make its use everywhere general both for stores and 
dwellings, as well as for public streets. 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 4O3 

The Telegraph. — The idea that signs for words might be sent from one point to 
another by means of electricity was early entertained. Galileo, in 1632, suggested a 
way in which, by the aid of the magnetic needle, persons might converse with each 
other when two or three thousand miles apart. And in 1753 a Scotch writer proposed 
a crude and clumsy apparatus by which electric currents passing through wires should 
make letters and stamp messages on paper. 

But It was not till 1832-5 that the telegraph, as now so successfully and extensively 
used, was made practical by Mr. S. B. F. Morse. The Morse line was first laid between 
Washington and Baltimore in 1842, and the printing telegraphic instrument was 
invented by Mr. Alfred Vail, of New Jersey, in 1837. At first Morse made use of the 
fountain pen to dot down his characters, but in the end steel points were found best. 
Various improvements have been patented for the transmission of messages, but most 
of them have been bought by the Western Union Company, which now controls most 
of the telegraph operations of this country. 

Telegraphing, which was first used on land, has since been extended to the ocean, 
and thousands of miles of telegraphic cable now connect the ends of the earth with 
each other. The postal telegraph system has been adopted by the government of 
Great Britain, telegraphic messages being sent by the post office department, and the 
adoption of the same system has been urged by the Postmaster-General of this country. 
According to the latest statistics, there are in various countries about 500,000 miles of 
telegraph lines, using about 1,200,000 miles of wire. Of this extent the United States 
has more than any other country. Messages, at the rate of 800 a day, are now sent 
from New York to London, and the answer returned in four minutes, the whole 800 
messages being sent between ten o'clock A. M. and two o'clock P. M. 

The Telepko7te.—Th.\s instrument is designed to convey articulate sounds to a distance 
by means of electricity. The principle of the telephone was first recognized in i860 by 
Reis, of Frankfort, but in his instrument the quality of the sound was entirely lost. The 
discovery of the principle of the articulating telephone seems to have been made about 
the same time by Gray, of Chicago, and by Bell, of Edinburgh, who is now living in the 
United States. The articulating telephone of Bell was first shown at the centennial 
exhibition at Philadelphia, and is of very simple construction. By it words spoken into 
the telephone are faithfully reproduced at great distances, and by the use of what is 
called the microphone the sounds have even been magnified. For domestic and business 
purposes the telephone is everywhere used in the United States, especially in cities and 
large towns. 

Matches. — Matches are, as all know, pieces of inflammable material prepared for the 
purpose of kindling fire readily. Before their invention fire was preserved by burying 
sticks of wood under the ashes over night, so that in the morning it would be burning 
coal ; or if the fire went out a common resource was to go with an iron or tin pan to 
a nearest neighbor and borrow a few coals with which to kindle the wood afresh. And 
among savages fire was kindled by the rapid friction of dry sticks upon each other. 

One of the first forms of what we now know as matches, was made by dipping one 
end of little strips or pieces of wood in melted sulphur. Thus prepared, the sulphur 
points at once took fire when applied to a spark obtained by striking fire from a flint and 
steel into tinder made from burnt cloth and usually kept in a small tin box. This was in 



404 OUR COUNTRY. 

almost universal use up to the first quarter of the present century. After this, several 
ingenious inventions rapidly followed each other and so displaced the old brimstone 
matches that now they are almost unknown. 

The first of these inventions was the instantaneous light box, which consisted of a 
small tin box containing a bottle in which was some sulphuric acid soaking in asbestus, 
and a supply of properly prepared matches coated with a mixture of chlorate of potash, 
powdered loaf sugar and gum arable, and these being dipped in the bottle at once took 
fire. Next came the " lucifer match," which dispensed with the sulphuric acid and was 
tipped with an inflammable mixture of chlorate of potash and sulphuret of antimony, 
and also with brimstone. These matches were ignited by friction, being drawn rapidly 
over sand-paper. Then came the " Congreve " match, which is much used by some, and 
which is still often called "the lucifer." They are tipped with phosphorus and nitre, or 
phosphorus, sulphur and chlorate of potash, and require but a slight friction to ignite 
them, for which purpose one side of the paper box in which they come is generally 
sanded. One of the latest forms of this match is the " safety match," which was 
invented in Sweden, which leaves out the phosphorus, and can be lighted only by 
rubbing on a composition which is put on the side of the bo.x containing the matches, 
thus preventing the danger of their taking fire by ordinary friction like the other kinds 
of matches. 

The wooden splints for matches, which are either square or round, are made rapidly 
by machinery. The business of match making, and the trade in matches, has 
attained enormous proportions both in this country and in Europe. One firm in 
Bohemia employs 2,700 persons in their manufacture, and more than one firm in England 
produces 10,000,000 of them every day. A Birmingham firm manufactures daily eight 
miles of thin wax taper to convert into Congreve matches. And several establishments 
in the United States manufacture matches by the millions daily. The machinery for 
cutting the tiny sticks which are made into matches, has been so perfected that one 
machine can cut 10,000,000 of these little sticks, ready for dipping, in a single day. 

Gas Light. — Lighting by gas is one of the best and most economical modes of 
obtaining artificial light which has thus far been brought into use. As compared with 
the old-fashioned tallow candles and oil lamps, it is a wonderful improvement, and 
though likely to be largely superseded by electric lighting, will still be everywhere 
extensively used. For the same amount of light, it is said to cost but one-fifth as much 
as common whale oil, and but one-ninth as much as sperm oil. Though electric lights 
are far more brilliant, gas light is thus far found to be the cheapest, and improvements 
are from time to time made reducing the cost of making it. It can be made from wood, 
rosin, oil, or kerosene, but that made from coal is thus far found to be the best. 

From 1658 to 1739, the attention of men of science in England had repeatedly 
been called to streams of inflammable air issuing from crevices and mines in the coal 
districts, and before 1800, some experiments were made toward lighting houses or 
factories with gas, but they seem to have been unsuccessful or little known. When in 
1810, a company was formed in London for lighting with gas, it is said that Sir 
Humphrey Davy ridiculed the idea, saying "one might as well talk of lighting houses or 
streets by slices of moonlight," and when, after strong opposition, the pipes for gas were 
introduced into the houses of parliament, a member, looking at the iron burners, said it 
was "absurd to talk of light from those tips, for they had no wicks" as in oil lamps. 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 405 

And when it was first proposed to introduce gas into Philadelphia, it was strongly 
objected to by a large number of leading citizens on the ground that it would cause 
explosions in the streets and endanger the lives of the people. 

The use of gas, however, rapidly increased, till most of the cities of Great Britain 
and Europe were lighted with it, and it was extensively used in this country. Gas is 
also used for cooking and heating purposes, and for facility of regulation, ease of 
application, and perfect cleanliness, it is greatly approved. Since the discovery of gas 
wells, ■' natural gas," as it is called, is coming into extensive use for heating purposes in 
manufactories of various kinds, as well as for heating and cooking in private dwellings. 
It is piped for great distances from the wells, and its use in cities is increasing. 

Petroleum or Kerosene. — Petroleum or kerosene was known for a long time before 
any one thought it of much value. For many years it was known to the Indians and 
early settlers in the State of New York as Seneca oil, and was used for medical purposes, 
chiefly as a liniment. But that it was so extensively a natural product and good for 
lighting and other practical purposes was a discovery of the present century. It had 
indeed been made in small quantities by distillation from shale and bituminous coal, but 
its wonderful discovery in the bowels of the earth put a stop to its manufacture 
and opened new sources of commerce and domestic use and comfort. 

The first systematic boring for it began about 1857-59, ''"•^ '•'' ^ f^'^^' years the 
product increased enormously. Wells sunk in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia 
vary in depth from less than two hundred up to two thousand feet, and from them the 
kereosene or petroleum flows, often spouting with force, and is gathered into enormous 
tanks and transported to the refineries where it is purified for use. 

Pipe lines also are constructed from the oil regions to the refineries, and huge tanks 
on railroad cars carry great quantities of it for the same purpose and for use to various 
parts of the country. At present the yearly output is variously estimated from 
30,000,000 to over 40,000,000 barrels, and though many of the old wells are exhausted, 
new fields are constantly being opened. For home purposes kerosene is everywhere 
used in the United States, and its export to foreign countries is great and constantly 
increasing. The total value of its exports for the year ending June 30, 1891, was 
$51,313,454. Its use for lighting purposes has largely taken the place of candles and of 
whale oil, especially in the smaller places which electric or gas lighting has not reached. 
The largest oil well ever known was opened in 1891, and yields 14,000 barrels of oil a day. 

India Rubber. — India rubber or caoutchouc is the dried milky juice of plants or 
trees growing in tropical or semi-tropical climates. In Herreros' account of the 
second voyage of Columbus, he mentions elastic balls made of the gum of a tree which 
he says is found in Hayti, and in 1615 it is mentioned by Torquemada as yielded by 
trees in Mexico, from the gum of which he says shoes were made and "cloaks were so 
waxed" as to make them water-proof. It was first known in this country as elastic 
_guiii, and afterward received the name of India rubber from its use in rubbing out the 
marks of lead pencils, for which purpose it was imported into Great Britain, and was 
sold at high prices. It was also used for flexible tubes for the use of surgeons and 
chemists. 

It was not till about 1820 that it began to be used in the United States in the 
manufacture of water-proof cloths and for making overshoes and various other articles. 



4o6 OUR COUNTRY. 

In that year the first pair of India rubber shoes was seen in this country. They 
were thick and clumsy, covered in part with gilding, and in shape like the heavy shoes of 
the Chinese. They were made of solid rubber, not as now made thin and flexible by 
vulcanizing. They were made by first forming a last of clay of the size and shape of the 
foot which the shoe might fit, and on this last the fluid from the tree, almost the color of 
milk, was allowed to flow and harden, to aid which it was held over a smoking fire which 
at the same time dried and blackened it. When the rubber was thoroughly dried and 
hardened, the clay last was broken up and the pieces taken out. The rubber shoe thus 
made was often a quarter of an inch thick in the thickest parts and thinner at the edges. 
In its vulcanized form, the mode of making India rubber articles as now known was 
discovered by accident by Mr. Charles Goodyear in 1843, and its applications are very 
numerous and important. The patents for its use in different forms are said to be 
between two and three thousand in number. Belting, buffers, wheel tires, washers» 
valves, pipes, fire-hose, bands, and articles for water-proof clothing are made of this 
material, as are many articles for medical and surgical purposes. One English firm 
manufactures three thousand pounds of India rubber thread a day; in another factory 
three thousand tobacco pouches are made daily. In Great Britain, in France, and in the 
United States thousands of operatives are constantly engaged in the manufacture of 
India rubber in its various forms, and the sale of such goods is immense and steadily 
increasing. 

Tlie Sand Blast. — The sand blast is a method of engraving figures on glass or 
metal, or any hard substance, by the percussive force of a rapid stream of sand driven 
against either of them by artificial means. It was invented by Benjamin Tilghman, of 
Philadelphia, who took out a patent in 1870. The hard surface to be cut is covered 
with a plate of metal or wax, with openings for the parts to be cut, and against these 
openings the stream of sand is forcibly driven by steam or compressed air, thus cutting 
letters or engravings in a very short time. At one of the great marble quarries of 
Vermont, the sand blast has been used to cut the names and dates on tombstones. 
Metal plates, with openings for the letters or figures, are fastened on the stone with 
shellac, and the sand blast cuts the word, or in this case the name of the soldier, with 
the company, regiment, rank, and dates in the stone in less than five minutes. Two 
hundred and fifty-four thousand headstones for soldiers have been cut for national 
cemeteries at this one quarry, at a cost of $864,000. Beautiful engravings can be cut on 
glass or metal in the same manner. Its practical uses are almost unlimited, and the 
cost of work done by it is far cheaper than by other methods. 

Mo7iitors. — The monitor or turret-ship is a recent invention in naval warfare, and 
consists of an iron or steel-plated vessel, rising but slightly above the water, and having 
one or more turrets encased in massive iron or steel plates, each holding guns of 
heavy caliber. 

These guns can be pointed by machinery in any direction. Turret-ships were first 
proposed in England, and about the same time "monitors" were constructed in the 
United States, differing somewhat from those of the former country. One advantage of 
the monitors is that heavier guns can be carried at the middle of the ship than at 
broadside ; another is the fact that they are made of iron or steel ; and still another, 
that so small a part of the vessel is exposed to the guns of an enemy. In our late war 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 



407 



the monitors were of great and efficient service, being proof against shots that might 
sink a wooden vessel. 

The first monitor in the United States navy was constructed by Mr. John Ericsson, 
the distinguished inventor and engineer. It was built in three months in 1862, and in 
that year defeated and sunk the Confederate iron-clad Merrimac. It is to be hoped that 
such terrible instruments of slaughter as the monitor and repeating guns and cannon 
may make warfare so fearfully destructive that nations will be led to settle their 
difficulties by arbitration rather than by the wholesale carnage of men. 

Revolvers and Galling Guns. — Gunpowder, or something very like it, seems to have 
been known to the Chinese long before the Christian era, and to have been used in 
Europe with artillery as early as the I2th century. Its connection with fire-arms of 
various kinds is obvious, and cannon (from canna, a reed), having small bores not larger 
than those of modern muskets, were used in the 14th century. As time passed on, 
fire-arms of various kinds and sizes were made, the arquebuse, the clumsy matchlock, the 
firelock, the flint musket, then the percussion musket and rifle, and then the beautiful 




AN EARLY STEAMBOAT. 



shot-guns of the present day, and the rifles culminating in the breech loaders, repeating 
guns, and revolvers of various kinds with their multiplied shooting power. 

The revolver, in fire-arms, is a weapon which, by means of revolving barrels, can be 
made to fire several times without reloading. In a very crude form, it was known two 
hundred years ago, and in the time of George IV a pistol with from four to twenty 
barrels bored in a solid mass of metal, was so made as to revolve when the trigger was 
drawn back, but its great weight and cumbrous mechanism made it comparatively useless. 

In 1835, Col. Samuel Colt, who, it is said, had seen this pistol in England, after long 
experiments, patented his world-renowned " Colt's revolvers," which are now so largely 
manufactured in this countrj' and in Europe. The revolver consists of one strong rifled 
barrel and a chamber perforated with six or seven barrels, each of which, in turn, is 
brought to the main barrel by the action of the trigger, so that all can be fired in quick 
succession. These revolvers are now extensively used in naval and military service, as 
well as by individuals in every part of the world. 

The revolver principle has also been applied successfully to artillery. The Gatling 
gun, a revolver of this kind, was e.xtensively used in the late war of secession. It was 
invented in 1861 by the man whose name it bears, and has five or ten barrels, each one 
having a corresponding lock, the barrels and locks revolving together. The gun is fed 



4o8 



OUR COUNTRY. 






A MODERN STEAMER — MIDNIGHT ON LAKE ERIE. 



by feed cases which 
fit into a hopper 
connected with the 
chamber, so that 
continuous firing can 
bo carried on at the 
rate of a thousand 
sliots a minute, each 
case being replaced 
by another as fast as 
the firing goes on. 
It is one of the most 
destructive weapons 
of modern warfare. 
The principle of 
rapid feeding, so as 
to keep up rapid and 
continuous firing, is 
applied to fire-arms of 
every kind. 

St en in Naz'iga- 
t ion . — W hen once 
steam had been 
thought of as a 
moving power, its 
application to navi- 
gation was obvious, 
and as early as 1543, 
Blasco de Garay 
endeavored so to 
apply it in the harbor 
of Barcelona. He 
exhibited a steam- 
boat of his own 
invention, but 
apparently without 
success, as nothing 
further is known 
about it. It was not 
till 1777 that, in the 



hands of Watt, steam became an efficient power, and from that time on many efforts 
were made in Europe to apply successfully the power of steam to navigation. 

Before the close of 1787, Fitch at Philadelphia, and Rumsey at Shepherdstown, 
Virginia, had each moved vessels by steam. A vessel built by Fitch, and propelled by 
steam, was on the Delaware river in 1790; and by 1800, Samuel Morey had gone up the 



GROWTH AND LMPROVEMENT. 4O9 

Connecticut river in a steamer of his own construction, and Elijah Ormsbee, a Rhode 
Island mechanic, had, on the Seekonk river, a boat, the paddles of which were driven by 
steam. Early in this century, Stevens on the Hudson, and Oliver Evans on the 
Delaware and Schuylkill, exhibited small vessels moved by steam. And in 1807, Robert 
Fulton made the first really successful voyage by steam, from New York to Albany in 
the Clermont, which went one hundred and ten miles in twenty-four hours against 
both wind and tide, thus having been the first to prove the practical utility of steam 
navigation. 

But even then the idea of steam navigation was opposed as both useless and 
dangerous, and "no man in his senses," it was said, "would risk his life in such a fire 
boat as the Clermojit, when the river was full of good sailing packets." Soon after this 
time a small vessel, not much larger than a large row boat, went up the Connecticut river 
propelled by steam. The cylinders of the engine played horizontally, pushing out on 
each side of the boat four oars, which turned as in sculling, and then were drawn back 
towards the sides of the boat, the motion of which was about four miles an hour, but 
which, for some reason, did not make a second trip. 

From this time on improvements were rapidly made and the application of steam to 
navigation steadily increased. Before 1820 the first steamboat had passed down the 
Mississippi river to New Orleans; the first steamboat had appeared on the lakes; and the 
Atlantic had been crossed by the little steamship Savannah. Now magnificent 
steamboats are found on all our lakes and navigable rivers, and war steamers have taken 
the place of old ships of the line ; and where formerly sailing vessels often were for 
weeks and even months in coming from Havre to New York, bringing but few 
passengers, now our huge steamers crossing the Atlantic in less than six days, bring 
more human beings in a single passage than a hundred years ago crossed the ocean 
both ways in a year. In 179S a gentleman who had been abroad was a curiosity, and as 
he walked the streets of America he was pointed out with the remark, "There goes a 
man who has been in Europe ! " Now in a single year hundreds of thousands of 
emigrants from Europe land at the port of New York alone. 

Railroads. — Railroads, those wonderful instrumentalities of travel and transportation, 
owe their origin, not to men of education or high scientific attainments, but to the laborers 
or mechanics of the coal mines in the north of England who thus sought to simplify the 
transit of coal from the mines to the places of shipment or sale. These first railroads were 
made by two parallel lines of wooden beams laid and fixed on the ground, with flanges 
to prevent the wheels of the crude box cars from slipping off the track. Where 
seventeen hundred pounds made a one-horse load on the common road, forty-two hundred 
weight could easily be drawn by a horse on these beams or tramways as they were called. 

The date of their invention and first use is uncertain, but it was between 1602 and 
1649. It was not, however, till about 1700 that any improvements were made in their 
construction. Thin strips of iron were laid on the wood, and in 1740 cast iron rails took 
the place of the iron strips. Soon a connected series of small wagons took the place of 
one large wagon, and flanges on the wheels took the place of flanges on the rails. In 
1802 a patent was taken out for a steam carriage which drew the wagons about five miles 
an hour. This crude form of locomotion was improved by Stephenson, and about 1821 
passengers were carried, for the first time, in railroad coaches. 



4IO 



OUR COUNTRY. 




O 

o 






Ed 
z 

Id 
U 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 4II 

The first railroad in tlie United States was at Ouincy, Massachusetts. It was run 
by horse power and was used to transport granite from the quarries. It was not till 1829 
that the first locomotive was introduced into America, and that was built in England. The 
Baltimore and Ohio railroad was begun in 1828, and the road from Albany to 
Schenectady in 1831. The cars and locomotives, as compared with those of the present 
day, were of crude and simple construction. {See cut on page 'J2.) For some time it 
seemed a question whether railroads or canals were to be the great modes of travel and 
transportation for the country. As late as 1827 a leading professor of Yale college, in a 
lecture to- his classes, took the ground that railroads were so expensive, and if built, would 
be so unreliable, and if attempting any great speed, would be so dangerous, that the great 
reliance of the country for transportation and travel would probably be by canals. And 
Chancellor Livingston is reported as having said that for building railroads a solid 
foundation of stone would have to be laid, strong stone walls built on each side of the 
track, and that to say nothing of the expense of building the roads, they probably 
could not go more than four or five miles an hour, and that canals would be our chief 
reliance for traveling and for the transportation of goods and produce. 

The improvements in railroads, tars, and locomotives steadily went on, till now 
the United States has more well appointed railroads than any other country, 
their mileage being more than half of that of the world. The railroads already built 
have cost over $10,000,000,000, and employ more than 1,000,000 men ; and trains have 
run from New York to Chicago at the rate of about a mile a minute. 

The railroads of the country carried the last year 520,439,082 passengers and 
701,344,437 tons of freight. The elevated railway of New York carries some 525,000 
passengers a day, or 191,625,000 a year. The Hoosac tunnel, between four and five 
miles long, and the tunnel between Canada and Michigan, at the outlet of Lake Huron, 
are among the wonders of modern engineering. The railroad bridge at Poughkeepsie 
has a single span of 548 feet, and the highest railroad viaduct in the United States is on 
the Erie railroad and is 305 feet high. The fatal accidents in railway travel are said to 
average but one in ten million passengers. And a train has gone from New York 
to San Francisco in less than four days. 

Patents. — The first statute organizing the Patent ofifice was passed by Congress in 
1790, and the first patent issued by the United States was granted to Samuel Hopkins, 
for making pot and pearl ashes, about a hundred years ago. Up to 1830 the business of 
the office was so limited that it was conducted by a single clerk. In that year four clerks, 
one to act as examiner, and one as draughtsman, one as machinist, and one as messenger 
were appointed, and a library was commenced. From this small beginning has grown 
the present immense establishment occupying a building 453 feet long, 331 feet wide and 
75 feet high. The model halls in the upper story are 1350 feet in length and contain 
over 350,000 models. In the ten years ending in 1850, 5,941 patents were issued; from 
1850 to 1S60, 21,428; from i860 to 1870, 77,315; from 1870 to 1880, 140,375; in 1889, 
23,360; and up to 1890, in all, 433,432 have been granted. The ratio of the increase of 
patents is far greater than that of the population, and the receipts of the ofifice for fees, 
etc., are nearly $1,500,000 a year. The average weekly issue of patents at the present 
time is about 450. 



412 OUR COUNTRY. 

Pins. — Pins are small things, but used as they are by millions, the wonderful 
improvement in their manufacture, and their cheapness as now made, may well be 
mentioned as marking the progress of mechanical invention in modern times. As a 
requisite of the toilet, pins were first used in England in the latter part of the 15th 
century, and in 1540 brass pins were imported from France for the use of the queen of 
Henry VIII. For a long time they were made by hand ana were very expensive, as 
there were fourteen processes gone through in making a pin, requiring one man for each 
process. The expression "pin money" came from the fact that an old English tax was 
assessed on the people to meet the great expense of supplying the queen with pins, and 
when at a later date pins became cheaper, so much of the money given by the husband to 
his wife for personal expenses was required to pay for pins that for a long time the sum 
continued to be called " pin money." It was not till 1824 that a machine for making pins 
was invented by Mr. Wright, an American, and since improvements have been made on 
his invention, the fourteen old hand processes are now all performed by machines which 
though simple in principle, are wonderful in their details and in the work they accomplish. 
The entire process of cutting and straightening the wire, making the head and point, 
polishing and whitening the pin, creasing the paper and making in it holes for the pins, 
and then putting each pin in the hole in the paper prepared for it, all this is now done by 
machinery, and pins, which once were so few and so expensive, are now made and sent 
to market by car loads, and at the most moderate prices. 

Waic/ies and Clocks. — The earliest measure of time seems to have been by the 
shadow of an upright pole, which of course varied in its length and position ; then by 
crude sun dials ; then by the dropping of water from one vessel to another ; then by the 
hour glass, in which sand took the place of water, or, as with King Alfred, by the 
gradual shortening of lighted candles; and the earliest notice of anything like a clock was 
in 1379: one of a very crude kind was made by a German for the palace of Charles V, 
king of France. The portable time-keeper or watch, was first made with a pendulum, 
and was about the size of a dessert plate, sometimes round like the plate, and sometimes 
oblong in shape. It was first called the "pocket clock," but in 1552 was named a 
" watch." One made for Edward VI. was of iron gilded, and had plummets of lead 
working like the weights of a clock. A plain watch then cost over $1500, and it took a 
year to make one. Now we have clocks of every kind and price. One factory in New 
England makes over eighty thousand in a year; while a single watch factory at Waltham, 
Massachusetts, employs some two thousand five hundred workmen, and makes about 
fifteen thousand watches a year. An ordinary watch has about a hundred and fifty 
pieces or parts in its construction, and a stem-winder has about one hundred and 
eighty-five parts. It is estimated that the number of A\atches made in the United 
States and imported here from foreign countries, is at least one hundred and fifty 
thousand every year. So great, for a long time, was the cost of a clock or watch that 
on'y persons of great wealth could afford either. Now, for a dollar, any family may 
have a clock, and any laborer with the wages of a few days may purchase a watch. 

The Gauge Lathe. — -The art of shaping wood, metal, ivory or other hard substances 
into various forms by the turning lathe, has long been known, and in modern times has 
been applied to the most delicate articles of luxury and ornament, as well as to the 
most ponderous machinery; from the beautiful and fine tracing on the watch case to 



GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 



41: 




M/Wjllm ».P ■ and expel 




cylinder 

m 

ly 

f 

r 

ly 

carved by hand, 

but by the gauge 

lathe, one end of 

''^'■''^1' which moves on an 

iron model and the other on the 

block of wood, the latter is rapidly 

and perfectly turned to the desired 

the great saving of time 



nse. This use of the gauge 

/. ■ lathe, which is said to have been first 

made by Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin. 



is but one of the many important applications of 
the turning lathe for the saving of labor and 
rapidly and accurately completing work. By late 
improvements in the application of the principle, 
spools for the winding of thread are now said to be 
perfectly made at the rate of one every second of 
time for each set of the knives used. 

Wearing Apparel.— In the last, and in the 
early part of the present century, such things 
as ready-made hats, shoes and clothing, were 
comparatively unknown. The head was measured 
for the size of the hat, the foot for the size and 
shape of the shoe; and for clothing, as a common 
thing, the flax was raised, spun, and woven, or the 
sheep were purchased, and at the proper time 
sheared, and the wool cleansed, spun and woven 
into clothing for the family. 

For shoemaking, for example, nothing that 
could be called machinery was in use, and 
ready-made shoes as an article of trade, were almost unknown. Every village had 
its shoemaker who measured the foot, prepared a wooden last of the proper size and 
shape, furnished the leather, made his own wax and paste, sawed and split blocks of 
wood for shoe pegs, which he sharpened with his knife before using, made his own 
blacking, and did everything for the completion of the shoe except the binding, which 
was commonly done by women at home. Where the population was scattered and the 
dwellings isolated the shoes for the family were usually made in the house, the 
shoemaker going with his lap board, awls, hammer, thread, etc., from house to house, 
and staying with each family till his work was done. Now, as is well known, 
shoemaking is largely done by machinery, and one factory in one of our large cities, 



THE HUNTER S RETREAT. 



414 



OUR COUNTRY. 



employing about six hundred men, turns out three thousand pairs of shoes a day. As 
showing how rapidly such machines work, at a late public exhibition the foot of a lady 
was measured and a pair of shoes made for her in thirty-two minutes, while she waited 
for them. 

Tailors, or clothes-makers, in the same way, often went from house to house in 
villages, or in the country took the measure of each person, and remained with the 
family till the work was done. And the fact has been published that about 1740 a 
minister in Rhode Island sent the measure of his head to a hat maker in Massachusetts, 
by whom, in the course of a few weeks, the hat was duly made and sent on to the one 
who had ordered it. The well-known and immense establishments for ready-made 
clothing, for the sale of hats and shoes of every kind, shape and price, show most 
remarkably the changes that in this respect have taken place, and the progress of 
the country. 

There are many other inventions and improvements, in addition to those above 
mentioned, which show the progress of the country, and are well worthy of 

notice. Among them are the air brake and 
vestibule cars for railroads; the street cars; 
the grain elevator; elevators for stores and 
dwellings; the electro-magnet; the pointed 
screw; steel nails; the steam fire engine; 
jlp; the manufacture of 
truction of tunnels through 
k, as under the Hoosac 
jroad rivers, as at Port 
)ught by pipes from great 
turing purposes or heating 
increase and extension of 
postal facilities, till now 
we have in the country 
some 63,000 post offices 
receiving on an average 
8,000 pieces of mail 
matter every minute, 
distributing some 
8,000,000,000 pieces 
by postal cars every 
year, and in cities deliv- 
ering letters and papers 
daily, and in some cases 
several times in the day. 
All such advances in 
invention and improve- 
ment mark the progress 
of the country, and 
largely contribute to 
the prosperity and 
FORT SCENES, MACKINAC. comfort of the pcople. 




GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT. 415 

The general history of our country is, of course, the history of its growth, and the 
account of its various inventions and improvements which economize labor, increase 
production and add to the comforts of life and the increase of wealth, makes plain the 
nature and extent of our prosperity and progress. Tables of statistics on almost every 
subject might be added to what has already been presented, and such tables would show 
the steady progress of the country from the earliest dates to the present time. The 
census returns for 1890 have not as yet been fully published. But the contrasts of 1870 
and 1880 may show the advance of the country in some important particulars, and give 
some idea of what the advance, in all probability, has been from 1880 to 1890. The 
agriculture of a country and its products are so closely connected with its prosperity in 
other departments of growth, that most of the statistics which follow have reference to 
them, — and they are, to a great extent, an index of prosperity in other things. 

1870. 1880. 

Number of farms in the United States 2,659,985 4,002,907 

Acres in farms 407,735,041 536,081.835 

Value of farms 18,262,803,861 $10,197,096,776 

Value of farming implements $336,878,429 $406,520,055 

Barley, bushels 29,761,305 43,997,495 

Buckwheat, " 9,821,721 11,817,327 

Indian corn, " 760,944,549 1,754,591,676 

Oats, " " 282,107,157 407,858.999 

Rye, " 16,918,795 19,831,595 

Wheat, " 287,745,626 459,483,137 

Potatoes, " 143.337.473 169.458,539 

Cotton, bales 3,071,966 5,755.359 

Hay, tons 27,316,048 35,205,712 

Wool, lbs 100,102,387 153,681,751 

Hops, " 25,456,660 26,546378 

Rice, " 73,635,021 110,131,373 

Tobacco, " , 262,735,341 472,661,157 

Horses, 7,145-370 10,357,488 

Milch cows, 8,935.332 12,443,120 

Other cattle, 13,566,005 22,488,550 

Sheep, 28.477,951 35.102,074 

Swine, 25,134,559 47,681.700 

Number of manufactories 252,148 263.852 

Capital invested in them $2,118,306,769 $2,790,272,606 

Value of products $4,282,325,442 $5,369,579,191 

1870. 1880. 1890. 

Iron mined, tons 4,500 000 9 500,000 13,400,000 

Coal rained, tons 33,000,000 55,000,000 81,000,000 

Money in Circulation. 

1860 $ 435,408.252 

1870 675,212,794 

1880 973,382.228 

1890 1,429,251,270 

The whole cereal crop of the United States for 1891, is placed by the government 
crop report at 3,465,000,000 bushels, as against 2,515,000,000 for 1890. 



CHAPTER VII. 



National and Other Parks. 



THERE are other matters connected with the story of our country, some of which 
have been briefly mentioned in connection with the different States, but which 
have so much of national interest as to caU for a somewhat fuller notice. 
We have, for example, sixty-seven national or public cemeteries, in which are the 
remains of thousands of soldiers who perished in the late Civil War, giving their lives for 
the preservation of the Union. These cemeteries are located in twenty-two different 
States, and are under the care of superintendents appointed by the government. In 
that at Arlington, which is two hundred acres in extent and occupies part of the estate 
once owned by General Robert E. Lee, lie the bodies of more than eighteen thousand 
of these soldiers, the names of some twelve thousand of whom are on their monuments, 
while between six and seven thousand more, gathered from various battlefields after the 




Robinson's follv, mackinac islanu. 



416 



NATIONAL AND OTHER PARKS. 



417 



war was over, but not identified, are also buried there. And in various parts of the 
South are similar burial places, where rest the remains of thousands of brave soldiers of 
the Confederacy, who, under leaders like Jackson and Lee, were so often successful in 
conflict, and whose valor was fully acknowledged by those against whom they fought. 
Visitors at places like Andersonville, Gettysburg, Mackinac, Alexandria, Yorktown, 

and other public 
cemeteries, both 
North and South, 
are often seen 
among these silent 
dwellings of the 
honored dead, 
looking for the 
monuments and 
names of those 
once so near as 
well as dear, but 
now no more to be 
seen on earth. 

One of the most 
interesting of the 
cemeteries alluded 
to, especially in its 
associations, is 
that of Mackinac, 
for though com- 
paratively small, it 
is on the beautiful 
island which is 
famous for its 
liistory, for its 
Indian traditions 
and conflicts, as 
the stronghold of 
Pontiac, for its 
connection with 
the early fur 
traders of the 
great Northwest, 
and for its pure 
atmosphere and 
splendid scenery, 
w h i c h m a k e 
it one of the 
most delightful 
and attractive 
pleasure resorts in 
the country. 




4i8 



OUR CUUNTRY. 



Another interesting feature of our country is seen in the large and elegant parks of 
many of our chief cities, prepared at great expense as resorts for the people, where 
they may find not only health but recreation and pleasure. New York has its 
grand Central Park of eight hundred and forty-three acres, with its walks, 
drives, lakes, statues, and trees and shrubbery gathered from different regions. 
Baltimore has its Druid Hill, of six hundred and eighty acres of varied surface, 
magnificent oaks, the growth, of many years and walks and drives of exceeding 

beauty. Philadelphia 
has its widely ex- 
tended Fairmount, 
the largest city park 
in the world, cover- 
ing over three 
thousand acres, and 
giving in its drives 
and walks every 
variety of scenery. 
And Chicago has its 
six splendid parks, 
connected by a broad 
boulevard, in four of 
which are over 
sixteen hundred 
acres, and in all 
more than thirty- 
three miles of drives, 
with broad avenues 
of trees, and opening 
views of the lake. 

But the natural 
parks, as they are 
called, of the great 
West, in their extent 
and the variety of 
their wonders, sur- 
pass the mightiest 
and proudest works 
of man, and speak in 
visible accents of 
almighty power. 
For the most part 
they are extended 
ranges of compara- 
tively level lands, 
surrounded by moun- 
tains or towering 
cliffs, with wonderful 




SUGAR LOAF ROCK, MACKINAC ISLAND. 



NATIONAL AND OTHER PARKS. 



419 



scenery — cataracts, waterfalls, mammoth trees and vast geysers sending up huge jets or 
columns of water to a height of fifty, and in one case, two hundred and fifty feet. 
Some of these are: the North Park, of Colorado, having an altitude of eight thousand 
feet above sea level, and containing an area of twenty-five thousand square miles ; the 
1^:.. :• _ -^ -^:=^^. Middle Park, lying 

:Y n = 'i*. south of the one just 

":'?"> ~ " "•• mentioned, containing 

some three thousand 
square miles, and 
encircled by majestic 
mountains, some of 
whose peaks are from 
thirteen thousand to 
fourteen thousand feet 
high ; South Park, still 
further south, two 
thousand square miles 
in extent, and nine 
thousand feet above 
the level of the sea, 
surrounded by lofty 
mountain ranges; San 
Luis Park, south of that 
last mentioned, and also 
in Colorado, having 
an area of eighteen 
thousand square miles, 
a beautiful lake, and 
numerous hot or warm 
springs; Monument 
Park, eight miles from 
Colorado Springs, 
with its lofty sandstone 
columns, some of them 
fifty feet high ; and the 
Garden of the Gods, 
four miles from the 
Springs, some fifty 
acres in extent, sur- 
rounded, like the 
others, by mountains, 
ravines and cliffs, with 
large upright rocks, 
some of which are 
three hundred and fifty 

ARCH ROCK, MACKINAC ISLAND. fCCt high. 




420 



OUR COUNTRY. 




NATIONAL AND OTHER PARKS. 



421 



Of these vast natural parks, two, the Yosemite Valley and the Yellowstone region, 
have been reserved from sale or settlement under the laws of the United States, and 
made National Parks by acts of Congress, the former in 1864, and the latter in 1872. 
They are forever set apart as places of public resort and recreation, and great 
improvements have been made, and still greater are in progress to make them attractive 
to tourists and to all who would see some of the wildest, grandest and most beautiful 




GRAND CASoN, COLORADO RIVER. 



scenes which can anywhere be found. Tlie Yosemite Valley was granted, conditionally, 
to the State of California. It is in Mariposa county, about one hundred and fifty-five 
miles from San Francisco, and not far from the center of the State. It is 
nearly level, and what is included in the park is about six miles long, and from 
half a mile to a mile in width, and though about tour thousand feet above the level 
of the sea, its perpendicular depth below the surrounding level is about a mile. Its 



422 



OUR COUNTRY. 



walls are nearly vertical, and the Merced river flows through it at almost right angles 
to the mountain ranges. It is accessible in summer by stage and saddle-horse, but in 
winter only by snow-shoes. One of its objects of interest is the Bridal Veil Fall, 
where the water of the creek makes a precipitous descent of six hundred and thirty feet 
to a slope below, and then descends by a series of cascades to the valley, the entire 
fall being over nine hundred feet. Another is Cathedral Rock, a massive granite 
formation, two thousand six hundred and sixty feet high ; and near it the Spire, a 
single column of granite five hundred feet high and tapering toward the top; 
and then Sentinel Rock, towering three thousand and forty-three feet in the air, and 
terminating in a slender obelisk one thousand feet high. Sentinel Dome, and the 
Virgin's Tears Falls, are the next striking features, the latter a cataract descending one 

thousand feet. El Capitan and 
the Three Brothers are monster 
masses of rock, and above the 
latter is the great Yosemite Fall, 
having first a vertical descent 
of fifteen hundred feet, and 
then cascades of six hundred, 
and fifty, and a final fall of four 
hundred feet. These, with other 
and smaller falls, form a com- 
bination of the sublime and 
beautiful nowhere else to be 
found. 

About sixteen miles south of 
the valley are the Mariposa and 
other groves of the mammoth 
trees, the Sequoia Giganiea, 
found only in California, and 
also the Sequoia Semper Virens, 
or red wood. Three of these 
groves are in Mariposa county, 
and have one hundred and 
thirty-four trees, each of which is 
more than fifteen feet in diam- 
eter, and some three hundred of 
smaller size. In the different 
groups are trees from two hun- 
dred and seventy-five to three 
hundred and seventy-five feet in 
height, and from twenty-five to 
thirty-five feet in diameter; 
and some have been cut down, 
which, judging from the rings 
in the wood, are thought to 
have been growing for from two 
thousand to two thousand five 
STEEPLE ROCKS, YELLOWSTONE. nunaieu ycars. 




NATIONAL AND OTHER PARKS. 



423 




424 



OUR COUNTRY. 



But the great National Park is the Yellowstone, the wonders of which were first 
discovered in 1871 by the United States engineers. It is in Montana and Wyoming, and 
its area is three thousand five hundred and seventy-eight square miles. Its general 
elevation above the sea is about six thousand feet, with mountain ranges about it rising 
to the height of from ten to twelve thousand feet. • And the region approaching, as well 
as within and about it, is probably the most sublime and impressive in the world. The 
region is volcanic in character, and picturesque masses of rock, tall columns of basalt, the 
warm and hot springs, the wonderful geysers, and the mud volcanoes are all objects of 
ceaseless wonder and interest. The entrance to the great canon is so gloomy and 




the 
" Devil's Den." Through its narrow 
gorge the river rushes rapidly, shoots 
over a fall of one hundred and fifty 
feet, and then passes, by a series of 
rapids and cascades, to its main fall of 
three hundred and fifty feet. 

What is known as the hot spring 
region is remarkable for its mud 
geysers, and particularly for a " mud 
volcano," the crater of which is twenty-five feet wide and thirty feet deep, 
and which is constantly sending up its bubbling stream. One of the geysers of the 
region has a basin sixty feet in diameter and spouts at intervals of six hours. 
About eight miles from here is the beautiful Yellowstone lake, twenty-two miles long, 
from ten to fifteen wide, and three hundred feet deep. Further on, in the Fire-hole 
basin, is a system of hot springs having the appearance of vast lime-kilns in active 
operation and movement. But the chief wonder is the great geyser Dasin, which is 
entered from the north, following the course of the Madison river, on the sides of which 



BOILING SPRINGS, YELLOWSTONE PARK. 



NATIONAL AND OTHER PARKS. 



425 



are two geysers in active operation, known as the Sentinels. Beyond these are the Well 
geyser, which has a crater like a well, and spouts eighty or ninety feet, and the Castle 
geyser, on a platform of its own deposit, one hundred feet by seventy. At the head of 
the valley is Old Faithful, playing regularly every three-quarters of an hour, and throwing 
a stream of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet high. Then there are the 
Giant, the Giantess, the Beehive, the Grand, the Fan, the Saw Mill, the Turban, the 
Riverside, and several others, each wonderful in its way, and all showing volcanic power 
at work beneath. No other locality contains so many attractions both of climate and 
scenery, and no other, probably, has so many singular and wonderful formations and 
sights. The number of springs, large and small and of various kinds, is from 5,000 to 
10,000, of which at least fifty are geysers. Perhaps we can give a better description of 
this wonderful region by quoting from the report of Dr. Hayden, who explored it as 
government surveyor: 

"These springs cover an area of four square miles, but those in active operation are to 
be found within an area of about one square mile. The margins of the basins are beautifully 




BOILING SULPHUR SPRINGS, YELLOWSTONE PARK. 



scalloped, and formations of exquisite beauty are encrusted on them. The wonderful 
variety of these deposits excites the admiration of all visitors. But it is to the wonderful 
variety of exquisitely delicate colors that this picture owes the main part of its 
attractiveness. The little orifices from which the hot water issues are beautifully 
enameled with a porcelain-like lining, and around the edges a layer of sulphur is 
precipitated. As the water flows along the valley, it lays down in its course a 
pavement more beautiful and elaborate in its adornment than art has ever yet conceived. 
The sulphur and the iron, with the green microscopic vegetation, tint the whole with 
an illumination of which no decoration-painter has ever dreamed. From the sides of 
the oblong mound, which is here from thirty to fifty feet high, the water has oozed out 
at different points, forming small groups of the semicircular, step-like basins. 

" If we look at the principal group of springs from the high mound above the 
middle terrace, we can see the same variety of brilliant coloring. The wonderful 
transparency of the water surpasses anything of the kind to be seen in any other 



426 



OUR COUNTRY. 




NATIONAL AND OTHER PARKS. 



427 



portion of the world. The sky, with the smallest cloud that flits across it, is reflected in 
its clear depths, and the ultramarine colors, more vivid than the sea, are greatly 
heightened by the constant gentle vibrations. One can look down into the clear depths 
and see, with perfect distinctness, the minutest ornament on the inner sides of the basin ; 
and the exquisite beauty of the coloring, while the variety of forms baffles any attempt 
to portray them, either with pen or pencil. And then, too, around the borders of these 
springs, especially those of rather low temperature, and on the sides and bottoms of the 
numerous little channels of the streams that flow from these springs, there is a striking 
variety of the most vivid colors. One can only compare them to the most brilliant aniline 
dyes — various shades of red, from the brightest scarlet to a bright rose tint ; also yellow, 
from deep-bright sulphur, through all the shades, to light cream-color. There are also 
various shades of green, from the pecu,liar vegetation. These springs are also filled with 
minute vegetable forms. There are also in the little streams that flow from the boiling 
springs great quantities of a fibrous, silky substance, apparently vegetable, which vibrates 
at the slightest movement of the water, and has the appearance of the finest quality of 

cashmere wool. When the waters 
are still these silken masses become 
incrusted with lime, the delicate 
vegetable threads disappear, and a 
fibrous, spongy mass remains, like 
delicate snow-white coral. 

" Between Mount Washburn and 
the Upper Falls there are some seven 
or eight boiling springs of great size, 
which emit large quantities of sulphur- 
ous vapor. They look like nothing 
earthly one has ever seen, and the 
pungent fumes which fill the 
atmosphere are not unaccompanied 
by a disagreeable sense of possible 
suffocation. Entering the basin cauti- 
ously, one finds the entire surface of 
the earth covered with the incrusted 
sinter thrown from the springs. Jets 
of hot vapor are expelled through a 
hundred natural orifices with which it 
is pierced, and through every fracture 
made by passing over it. The springs 
themselves seem as diabolical in 
appearance as the witches' caldron in 
Macbeth, and need but the presence of 
Hecate and her weird band to realize 
that horrible creation of poetic fancy. 
They were all in a state of violent 
ebullition, throwing their liquid contents 
OLD FArrHFUL GEYSEK. to the height of thrcc or four feet. The 




428 



OUR COUNTRY. 



largest has a basin twenty by forty feet in diameter. Its greenish-yellow water is covered 
with bubbles, which are constantly rising, bursting, and emitting sulphurous gas from 
various parts of its surface. The central spring seethes and bubbles like a boiling caldron. 
Fearful volumes of vapor are constantly escaping it. Near it is another, not so large, 
but more infernal in appearance. Its contents, of the consistency of paint, are in 
constant, noisy ebullition. A stick thrust into it, on being withdrawn, is coated with 
a lead-colored slime a quarter of an inch in thickness. Nothing flows from this spring. 
Seemingly, it is boiling down. A fourth spring, which exhibits the same physical 
features, is partly covered by an overhanging ledge of rock. We tried to fathom it 
but the bottom was beyond the reach of the longest pole we could find. Rocks cast 
into it increase the agitation of its waters. There are several other springs in the 
group, smaller in size, but presenting the same characteristics. 

" Between the Upper and*Lower Falls and Yellowstone lake, which is the central gem 
of that wonderful collection of long-hidden treasures, lies a marvelous region, filled with 
boiling springs and craters, with two hills, three hundred feet high, formed wholly of the 
sinter thrown from the adjacent springs ; and at the base of one of them is a cavern 
whose mouth is seven feet in diameter, from which a dense jet of sulphurous vapor 
explodes with a regular report like a high-pressure engine. A few yards off is a boiling 
spring, seventy feet long by forty wide, the water of which is in unceasing agitation ; and 
in another direction is a boiling alum spring, surrounded by 
beautiful crystals. No wonder that the first beholders of 
these things called the various points by names of infernal 
significance. There are now no true geysers in this group, ^ %^f^ 
but in ancient times there were very powerful ones. 
The steam-vents on the side, and at the foot of these 
hills, represent the dying stages of this once most 
active group. 

" But the real geyser region is just over the margin 
of the Yellowstone Basin, on the Firehole river. The 
valley in which these wonderful phenomena are 
located is about twelve miles in length with an .i 
average width of three miles. It is said that r. 
there are more of these natural wonders in this 
small area than can be found in the rest of 
the world. 

" The Firehole river flows from Madison hke, 
one of the most beautiful of the manv lovely 
sheets of water in the mountains, 
and the volume of its waters is 
increased by the accession of 
mountain torrents, until just 
before reaching the geyser-basin, 
it falls over two cliffs, one twenty, 
and the other fifty feet in height. 
These pretty falls, if located in 
an Eastern stream, would be 








^ 



^s*^ . 



i 



"^ % 



StisJ/ 






LIME TOWER NEAR HOT SPRINGS. 



NATIONAL AND OTHER PARKS. 



429 



celebrated in history and song ; here amid objects so grand as to stagger beHef, they 
were passed without a halt." 

The boiling springs, all in active eruption, with craters from three to forty feet 
high, are scattered along the banks of the Firehole river. A description of one of the 
geysers will answer for all, though they differ in dimensions. " The great beauty of the 
prismatic colors," writes Dr. Hayden, " depends much on the sunlight ; about the middle 
of the day, when the bright rays descend nearly vertically, and a slight breeze just makes 
a ripple on the surface, the colors exceed comparison ; when the surface is 
calm there is one vast chaos of colors, dancing, as it were, like the colors of a 
kaleidoscope. As seen through this marvelous play of colors, the decorations on the 
sides of the basin are lighted up with a wild, weird beauty, which wafts one at once into 




THE YELLOWSTONE. 



the land of enchantment ; all the 
brilliant feats of fairies and genii in 
the Arabian Nights' Entertainment 
are forgotten in the actual presence 
of such marvellous beauty ; life 
becomes a privilege and a blessing 
after one has seen and thoroughly 
felt its cunning skill." 



430 



OUR COUNTRY. 



" Castle Geyser " is the most imposing formation in the valley, and receives its 
name from its resemblance to the ruins of an old fortress. The deposited silica 
has crystallized in immense globular masses, like cauliflowers, or spongiform corals, 
apparently formed about a nucleus at right angles to the centre. The mound is forty, 
and the chimney twenty feet high, and the lower portion rises in steps formed of 
thin laminae of silicia, an inch or two thick. The base of the crater is three hundred 




and twenty-five feet in circumference, and that of the turret one hundred and twenty-five. 
At the base of the turret lies a large petrified pine-log, covered with a brilliant 
incrustation several inches thick." 

" The Giant Geyser," writes Lieutenant Doane, " played several times while we were 
in the valley, on one occasion throwing constantly for over three hours, a stream of water 
seven feet in diameter, from ninety to two hundred feet perpendicularly, while it doubled 
the size of the Firehole river." 



NATIONAL AND OTHER PARKS. 



431 



Near the Giant is the Grotto, so called from its curious formation, which plays a 
volume of water six feet in diameter to a height of sixty feet. Both these National 
Parks are constantly and more and more visited by tourists from our own and foreign 
countries, offering as they do, attractions of various kinds that are unsurpassed in any 
part of the world. > 

It was a wise foresight in our government when Congress passed an act, forever 
preserving these parks in their natural grandeur, that those of coming generations as well 
as the present may have the opportunity of personally viewing what it is impossible fully 
to describe. 




LOWER FALLS, YELLOWSTONE PARK. 



432 



OUR COUNTRY. 




GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 



THEIR IMPORTANCE IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



TO KNOW thoroughly the history of a country is to be familiar, not merely with 
the ordinary events of its annals, but to be also acquainted with its great 
political changes and their causes. Those that mark the great eras of our 
country are, of course, mentioned in the preceding pages which speak of them at the 
times of their occurrence. They cannot, however, be fully understood, but by the 
important State papers which e.Kplain their origin and causes, and mark the steps of their 
progress to final results. The importance of such papers as an essential part of our 
history is too often overlooked. Instead of being prominently presented as they ought 
to be, they are too often printed in small type and labeled " Appendi.x," as though of 
comparatively little consequence, and so are too often unknown. How few, even of the 
intelligent readers of our history, are familiar with " Franklin's plan " for the union of 
the colonies, with the old " Articles of Confederation," with the " Declaration of 
Independence," and with the present " Constitution of the United States "and its various 
amendments ! All these important papers should be familiar to our people that they 
may know the progress of our republican institutions and the fundamental principles of 
our National life. In a Republic like ours every citizen is a law-maker, and as such he 
should know not only the laws, but the great fundamental principles on which they rest. 
And that they may be known they are here given, in full, together with Washington's 
'■ Farewell Address," and Lincoln's " Emancipation Proclamation," all of which are 
essential parts of our history. 



Franklin's Plan of Union. 

The compact of the Mayflower, made before the pilgrim fathers left their little 
vessel, may be seen on page 41. While the settlements were small, such brief 
agreements well expressed the union and aim of those who, as to their plans and 
government, were substantially of one mind. But as colonies were multiplied, in 
different parts of the country, and as their populations increased, different and 
conflicting views arose and each colony looked chiefly to its own local interests. The 
New England merchant had little sympathy with the Southern planter, and the adjacent 
28 433 



434 OUR COUNTRY. 

colonies too often disputed about boundaries, and were filled with commercial jealousies. 
So numerous and decided were these opposing interests that Jeremiah Dummer, in his 
noted "Defense of the New Charters," said it was impossible for the different colonies 
ever to unite; and another prominent writer thought that if the oppressive "hand of 
Great Britain were once taken off, there would be chronic civil war all the way from 
Maine to Georgia." 

This state of things was the cause of no little anxiety to the most thoughtful 
leaders of the colonies. And in 1754, in the prospect of war with the French, a 
Congress of the colonies was called to meet at Albany to prepare for the expected 
conflict, and also to form some plan of confederation which all the colonies might adopt. 
Franklin, who had broad views and a clear foresight of the future growth and greatness 
of the country, was earnestly anxious to bring about a permanent union of the colonies, 
and at the head of his paper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, he placed a union device, 
with the motto, " Unite or Die." And a plan was prepared, chiefly by him, 
known afterward as the "Albany Plan," though it might better have been entitled 
" Franklin's Plan," which was much more complete than the Confederate scheme of 
1777, and in some of its main features greatly resembled the Federal Constitution of 
17S7, under which, with its amendments, our government is now administered. 

His plan was that the Legislature of each colony should, once in three years, choose 
representatives to a Grand Federal Council which should make treaties and regulate 
trade with the Indians, legislate on all matters concerning the colonies as a whole, levy 
taxes, enlist soldiers, build forts, and nominate civil officers, all- laws passed by it to 
be subject to approval or veto by the king within three years. No colony was to send 
more than seven or less than two representatives, and except matters which were to be 
controlled by the Federal Council, each colony was to retain all other powers. The 
supreme executive power was to be vested in a president or governor-general, to be 
appointed and paid by the crown, who was to nominate all military officers subject to 
the approval of the Grand Council, and to have a veto on its acts, and no money was 
to be issued but by the joint order of the Executive and the Council. 

This plan, it will be seen, was that of a Federal Government, and not a mere 
compact or league. It was designed to confer on the representatives of the people 
the power of making laws acting directly on individuals, and appointing officers to 
execute them, and yet not to interfere with the execution of the laws operating on the 
same individual by the laws of States. It contemplated the two great and important 
ideas, on the one hand, of a central Federal Government, and on the other, of colonial 
or State rights, each supreme in its own sphere. " It was," says Fiske, " in its main 
features, a noble scheme, and the great statesman who devised it was already looking 
forward to the immense growth of the American Union, though he had not yet foreseen 
the separation of the colonies from the mother country." " In less than a century," he 
said, "the great country beyond the Alleghanies must become a populous and powerful 
dominion," and he recommended that two new colonies should at once be founded in 
the West, one on Lake Erie, and the other in the valley of the Ohio, with free chartered 
governments, like those of Rhode Island and Connecticut. 




■'**;; 




V 



1^//r'///r/.J M^kd/'ri 



great historical papers. 435 

The Declaration of Independence. 

Two years before the adoption of the plan of the Confederation by the last of the 
States, the Declaration of Independence, prepared mainly by Jefferson, had been adopted 
by the "Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled, July 4, 1776." 
It declared the separation of the colonies from the mother country, and gave in clear 
and vivid language the reasons of the separation. It is a document of which many 
speak, but with the details of which, it is feared, comparatively few are familiar. But 
as showing the great principles and noble courage of the founders of our Union, and 
the reasons why we are no longer dependent colonies, but an independent nation, it 
ought to be known in every family and by every one who is a citizen of the land where, 
in the language of Lincoln, " there is a new birth of freedom, and the government of the 
people, by the people, and for the people," it is hoped, may never " perish from 
the earth." 

The Declaration. 

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to 
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, 
among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of 
nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind 
requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to a separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ; that they 
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are 
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; 
that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the 
right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying 
its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them 
shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will 
dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient 
causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed 
to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to 
which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, 
pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute 
despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide 
new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these 
colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former 
systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history 
of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct object, the establishment of 
an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a 
candid world : 

He has refused to assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the 
public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, 
-unless. suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so 
suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 



436 OUR COUNTRY. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of 
people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the 
Legislature; a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and 
distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing 
them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly 
firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be 
elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the 
people at large for their exercise ; the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all 
the danger of invasion from without, and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose, 
obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to 
encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations 
of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for 
establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges depend on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, andi 
the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to 
harass our people, and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing ar.-nies, without the consent of 
our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the 
civil power. 

He has combined, with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our 
Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of 
pretended legislation. 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us. 

For protecting them by a mock trial, from punishment, for any murders which they 
should commit on the inhabitants of these States. 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world. 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent. 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury. 

For transporting us beyond the seas to be tried for pretended offenses. 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, 
establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to 
render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule 
into these colonies. 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, 
fundamentally, the powers of our governments. 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power 
to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and 
wasine war against us. 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 437 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the 
lives of our people. 

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete 
the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun, with circumstances of 
cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy 
the head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms 
against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to 
fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has endeavored to bring on 
the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of 
warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most 
humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. 
A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is 
unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned 
them, from time to time, of attempts made by their legislature to extend an 
unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of 
our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and 
magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to 
disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and 
correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. 
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold 
them, as we hold the rest of mankind — enemies in war, in peace, friends. 

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general 
■Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of 
our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these 
colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right 
ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to 
the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great 
Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as free and independent States, 
they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, 
and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And, 
for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine 
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our 
sacred honor. Signed by 

Massachusetts Bay. New Hampshire. 

JOHN HANCOCK. JOSIAH BARTLETT. 

SAMUEL ADAMS. WILLIAM WHIPPLE. 

JOHN ADAMS. MATTHEW THORNTON. 

ROBERT TREAT PAINE. 

ELBRIDGE GERRY. Delaware. 

j?l,„j„ T,u,,j C^SAR RODNEY. 

mode Island ^^^^^^ ^^^^ 

STEPHEN HOPKINS. THOMAS M'KEAN. 

WILLIAM ELLERY. 



438 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Connecticut. 



ROGER SHERMAN. 
SAMUEL HU.NTINGTON. 
WILLIAM WILLIAMS. 
OLIVER WOLCOTT. 



New York. 



WILLIAM FLOYD. 
PHILIP LIVINGSTON. 
FRANCIS LEWIS. 
LEWIS MORRIS. 



New Jersey. 



RICHARD STOCKTON. 
JOHN WITHERSPOON. 
FRANCIS HOPKINSON. 
JOHN HART. 
ABRAHAM CLARK. 



Petmsylvaiiia. 



ROBERT MORRIS. 
BENJAMIN RUSH. 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
JOHN MORTON. 
GEORGE CLYMER. 
JAMES SMITH. 
GEORGE TAYLOR. 
JAMES WILSON. 
GEORGE ROSS. 



Maryland. 

SAMUEL CHASE. 

WILLIAM PACA. 

THOMAS STONE. 

CHARLES CARROLL, of Carrollton. 

Virginia, 

GEORGE WYTHE. 
RICHARD HENRY LEE. 
THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
BENJAMIN HARRISON. 
THOMAS NELSON, JuN. 
FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE. 
CARTER BRAXTON. 

North Carolina. 

WILLIAM HOOPER. 
JOSEPH HUGHES. 
JOHN PENN. 

South Carolijia. 

EDWARD RUTLEDGE. 
THOMAS HEYWARD, JuN. 
THOMAS LYNCH, JuN. 
ARTHUR MIDDLETON. 

Georgia. 

BUTTON GWINNET. 
LYMAN HALL. 
GEORGE WALTON. 



The CONFEDERATION OF 1 778. 

Comprehensive and e.xcellent as the plan of Frankhn now seems to us, it did not 
meet with favor either on the part of the royal governors or with the people, and 
though adopted by the Albany assembly, it was nowhere approved by the colonies or 
in the mother country. 

The importance of union, however, was more and more felt, especially after the 
Declaration of Independence, and in July, 1778, the representatives of eight of the 
colonies which afterward formed the " United States of America," agreed to the 
"Articles of confederation and perpetual union between the States of New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina 
and Georgia." 

But it was March, 1781, before Maryland, the last to adopt it, ratified the 
instrument, and it went into full operation in the thirteen States. In these articles were 
set forth the great principles of government, which a few years later were embodied in 
the Constitution of the United States, but the plan was rather that of a compact or 
agreement than a government — a system of good provisions, but with no authority to 
enforce or carry them out in practice. It was, in fact, but little more than a name. 



I 



GREAT HISTORICAL I'APKRS. 



439 




SIGNING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



440 OUR COUNTRY. 

Jay, one of the wisest of our public men, said of Congress, which was the seat of its 
power: "They might declare war, but had no power to raise men or money to carry it 
on ; might make peace, but had no power to see its terms observed ; might form 
alliances, but without the ability to comply with their own stipulations; might enter 
into treaties of commerce, but without power to enforce them ; might borrow money, 
but without means to repay it; might regulate commerce, but without authority to 
enforce their ordinances; might appoint ministers and other officers of trust, but 
without power to try or punish them for misdemeanors ; might resolve, but could not 
execute either with dispatcli or secrecy." In a word, he says, "they may consult and 
deliberate, recommend and make requisitions, and only those who please may regard 
them." {Si-f Jytrj^f i6i.) 

This estimate of so wise and thoughtful a man was more and more seen to be 
correct, and the feeling became general that a new Constitution should be formed which 
should give to the United States the oneness of a great nation, and instead of leaving 
everything to Congress, should separate the three great departments of sovereignty — 
the Legislative, Judicial and Executive, and give to each its appropriate sphere and 
power. And the result was the formation of the present Federal Constitution, adopted 
by eleven States in 1788, and going into operation March 4, 1789. 



The Constitution of the United States and its Amendments. 

What was said of the Declaration of Independence may justly be said, and in even 
stronger terms, of the Constitution of our country. How few, even of our intelligent 
men, whether in business or professional life, are familiar with the details of its 
provisions and the guarantees it gives for the rights and privileges of the people. Ought 
it not to be a study in our colleges and higher seminaries of learning, and its principles 
to be taught in the schools and families of the people if they would be intelligently free? 
And instead of being overlooked and unknown, ought it not to be regarded as a most 
important part of the history of our country in connection with which it is here printed, 
that it may be studied and understood in every family, and by every reader? It is 
as follows : 



The Constitution. 



PREAMBLE. 

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote 
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, 
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of North America. 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 



441 



Article I. 



SECTION I. 



All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress Legislation vested 
of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of m congress. 
Representatives. 



SECTION II. 

1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members 
chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the 
electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors 
of the most numerous branch of the State legislature. 

2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained 
to the age of twenty-five years and been seven years a citizen of the 
United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that 
State in which he shall be chosen. 

3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the 
several States which may be included within this Union, according to 
their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the 
whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a 
term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other 
persons.* The actual enumeration shall be made within three years 
after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within 
every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law 
direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every 
thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one representative; 
and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire 
shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and 
Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five. New York six. New 
Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia 
ten, North Carolina five. South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, 
the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such 
vacancies. 

5. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and 
other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

SECTION III. 

I. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two 
senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years ; 
and each senator shall have one vote. 



Representatives for 
two years from 
States. 



Must be citizens 
not under twenty- 
five years of age. 



Proportioned to 
population. 



Vacancies, how 
filled. 



House to choose its 
officers — and has 
sole power of im- 
peachment. 



Senate, how organ- 
ized. 



♦Altered by Fourteenth Amendment, Section II. 



442 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Classes of mem- 
bers, and vacan- 
cies. 



Who senators. 



Presiding officer of 
Senate. 



Chooses itsofficers. 



Tries all impeach- 
ments. 



Effect of convic- 
tion. 



2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the 
first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three 
classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at 
the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration 
of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth 
year, so that one-third may be chosen every second year ; and if 
vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the 
legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary 
appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then 
fill such vacancies. 

3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attainted to the 
age of thirty years and been nine years a citizen of the United States, 
and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for 
which he shall be chosen. 

4. The vice-president of the United States shall be president of the 
Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president 
pro tempore, in the absence of the vice-president, or when he shall 
exercise the ofifice as President of the United States. 

6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. 
When sitting for that purpose, they shall all be on oath or afifirmation. 
When the president of the United States is tried, the chief-justice shall 
preside ; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of 
two-thirds of the members present. 

7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than 
to removal from ofifice and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office 
of honor, trust, or profit under the United States ; but the party 
convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, 
judgment, and punishment, according to law. 



Elections. 



When Congress 
meets. 



SECTION IV. 

1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators 
and representatives, shall be perscribed in each State by the legislature 
thereof ; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such 
regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. 

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and 
such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they 
shall by law appoint a different day. 



SECTION V. 

Who its members. I. Each housc shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and 

qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall 
constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 



445 



from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of 
absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each house 
may provide. 

2. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish 
its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of 
two-thirds, expel a member. 

3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time 
to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment 
require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either house, 
on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be 
entered on the journal. 

4. Neither house, during the session of Congress shall, without the 
consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other 
place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 



Rules of proceed- 
ing and behavior. 



A journal to be 
kept. 



As to adjournments. 



SECTION VI. 

I. The senators and representatives shall receive a compensation compensation and 
for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury P"viege. 
of the United States. They shall, in all cases, except treason, felony, 
and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their 
attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to and 
returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either house, 
they shall not be questioned in any other place. 



2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he 
was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the 
United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments 
whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no person 
holding any ofifice under the United States, shall be a member of either 
house during his continuance in office. 



Hold no other 
office 



SECTION VII. 

1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House 
of Representatives f but the Senate may propose or concur with 
amendments as on other bills. 

2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives 
and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the 
president of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not 
he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall 
have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, 
and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two-thirds of 
that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the 
objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, 
and if approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But 



Revenue bills to 
originate in House 
of Representa- 
tives. 

Bills to be approved 
by the president, 
but may be passed 
by two-thirds 
vote. 



444 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Adjournment. 



in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas 
and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill 
shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill 
shall not be returned by the president within ten days (Sundays 
excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a 
law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their 
adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 

3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the 
Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a 
question of adjournment) shall be presented to the president of the 
United States ; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved 
by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be re-passed by two-thirds of 
the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and 
limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. 



Powers of Con- 
gress. 



SECTION vni. 
The Congress shall have power to: 

1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the 
debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the 
United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform 
throughout the United States; 

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the 
several States, and with the Indian tribes; 

4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws 
on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, 
and fix the standard of weights and measures; 

6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities 
and current coin of the United States; 

7. To establish post-ofifices and post-roads; 

8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing 
for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their 
respective writings and discoveries; 

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court ; 

10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the 
high seas, and offenses against the law of nations; 

11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make 
rules concerning captures on land and water; 

12. To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to 
that use shall be for a longer term than two years; 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 



445 



13. To provide and maintain a navy; 

14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land 
and naval forces; 

15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of 
the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions; 

16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, 
and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service 
of the United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment 
of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the 
discipline prescribed by Congress; 

17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over 
such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of 
particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of 
the government of the United States; and to exercise like authority 
over all places purchased by the consent of the Legislature of the State 
in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, 
dock-yards, and other needful buildings; — and 

18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for 
carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers 
vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or 
in any department or ofificer thereof. 

SECTION IX. 



1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the 
States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited 
by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, 
but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding 
ten dollars for each person. 

2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, 
unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may 
require it. 

3. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 

4. No capitation, or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion 
to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 

5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from anj' State. 

6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or 
revenue to the ports of one State over those of another; nor shall 
vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay 
duties in another. 

7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence 
of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of 



Immigration, 



Habeas corpus. 



Attainder and ex 
post facto laws. 

Taxes proportioned 
to population. 



Ports of all States 
on the same foot- 
ing. 



No moneys to be 
drawn from treas- 
ury but by law. 



446 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Titles and gifts for- 
bidden. 



the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published 
from time to time. 

8. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States; and 
no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without 
the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, ofifice, 
or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State. 



Limitations of 
States in various 
matters. 



SECTION X. 

1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; 
grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; 
make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; 
pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the 
obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 

2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any 
imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely 
necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all 
duties and imposts, laid by any State on imports or exports shall be for 
the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be 
subject to the revision and control of the Congress. 

3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of 
tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any 
agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or 
engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as 
will not admit of delay. 

Article II. 



Presidential 
tions. 



elec- 



SECTIOxN I. 

The president. I. The executivc power shall be vested in a president of the United 

States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four 
years, and, together with the vice-president, chosen for the same term, 
be elected as follows: 

2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature 
thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of 
senators and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the 
Congress; but no senator or representative, or person holding an ofifice 
of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

D«ies of electors. 3. The clcctors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by 

ballot for two persons, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant 
of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the 
persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each ; which list they 
shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government 
of the United States, directed to the president of the Senate. The 
president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 

of Representatives, open all the certificates ; and the votes shall then be 
counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the 
president, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors 
appointed ; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and 
have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall 
immediately choose, by ballot, one of them for president ; and if no 
person have a majority, then, from the five highest on the list, the said 
house shall, in like manner, choose the president. But, in choosing the 
president, the votes shall be taken by States; the representation from 
each State having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a 
member or members from two-thirds of the States ; and a majority of all 
the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice 
of president, the person having the greatest number of votes of the 
electors shall be vice-president. But, if there should remain two or more 
who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them, by ballot, the 
vice-president. 

4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, 
and the day on which they shall give their votes ; which day shall be the 
same throughout the United States. 

5. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United 
States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible 
to the office of president ; neither shall any person be eligible to that 
office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been 
fourteen years a resident within the United States. 

6. In case of the removal of the president from office, or of his 
death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the 
said office, the same shall devolve on the vice-president ; and the Congress 
may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or 
inability, both of the president and vice-president, declaring what officer 
shall then act as president, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the 
disability be removed, or a president shall be elected. 

7. The president shall, at stated times, receive for his services a 
compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the 
period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive 
within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any 
of them. 



447 



To vote on same 



Who may be presi- 
dent. 



If office vacant. 



His compensation. 



8. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the 
following oath or affirmation : 

" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute 
the office of president of the United States, and will, to the best of my 
ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United 
States. 



His oath of office. 



448 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Commander- in- 
chief. 



Power of appoint- 
ment and treaties. 



Vacancies in office. 



SECTION II. 

1. The president shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy 
of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called 
into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, 
in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, 
upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective of^ces, and he 
shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences committed 
against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present 
concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent 
of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and 
consuls, judges of the supreme court, and all other officers of the United 
States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and 
which shall be established by law ; but the Congress may by law vest 
the appointment of such inferior ofificers, as they think proper, in the 
President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may 
happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which 
shall expire at the end of their ne.xt session. 



President and Con- 
gress. 



SECTION III. 

He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the 
state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures 
as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary 
occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of 
disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, 
he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall 
receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that 
the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of 
the United States. 



Impeachments. 



SECTION IV. 



The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United 
States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction 
of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 



Article HI. 



SECTION I. 



The judiciary. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in a 

supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from 
time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme 
and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 



shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation which 
shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. 



449 



SECTION II. 

1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, Eittem of jurisdic- 
arising under this Constitution, to the laws of the United States, and "°''' 
treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases 

affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of 
admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the 
United States shall be a party ; to controversies between two or more 
States ; between a State and citizens of another State ; between citizens 
of different States; between citizens of the same State claiming lands 
under grants of different States, and between a State, or the citizens 
thereof, and foreign States, citizens, or subjects. 

2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, oth'er public ministers and 
consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the supreme court 
shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, 
the supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and 
fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress 
shall make. 

3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be 
by jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes 
shall have been committed ; but when not committed within any State, 
the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law 
have directed. 



What to judge. 



Trial by jury. 



SECTION III. 

1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying Treason. 
war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and 
comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the 
testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in 

open court. 

2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishmet of 
treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or 
forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted. 



Its punishment 



Article IV. 

SECTION I. 

Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, 
records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the 
Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, 
records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

2g 



Decisions valid ia 
everx State. 



450 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Citizens in different 
States. 



Offences - 
tried. 



where 



Obligation to labor. 



New Slates. 



Territories. 



Republ i canism 
giiaranteed. 



SECTION 11. 

1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and 
immunities of citizens in the several States. 

2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other 
crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall 
on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, 
be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of 
the crime. 

3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws 
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or 
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be 
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor 
may be due. 

SECTION III. 

1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union ; 
but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of 
any other State; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or 
more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the legislatures of 
the States concerned as well as of the Congress. 

2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful 
rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging 
to the United States ; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so 
construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any 
particular State. 

SECTION IV. 

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a 
Republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against 
invasion ; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when 
the legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence. 



Amendments to the 
Constitution. 



Article V. 

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it 
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or. on the 
application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall 
call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall 
be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when 
ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by 
conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of 
ratification may be proposed by the Congress: provided that no 
amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 



451 



hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses 
in the ninth section of the first article ; and that no State, without its 
■consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 



National laws su- 
preme. 



Article VI. 

1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the Former debts valid, 
adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States 

under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 

2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall 
be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be 
made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law 
of the land ; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, 
any thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary 
notwithstanding. 

3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the 
members of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial 
■officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be 
bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but no 
religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or 
public trust under the United States. 

Article VII. 



Oaths of office, 



The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient 
for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying 
the same. 

Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the States present, 
the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United 
States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto 
subscribed our names. 

George Washington, 

President and Deputy from Virginia. 



Validity of the Con- 
stitution. 



When signed. 



Nezv Hampshire. 

JOHN LANGDON. 
NICHOLAS oilman. 



Massachusetts. 

NATHANIEL GORHAM. 
RUFUS KING. 



Delaware. 



GEORGE READ, 
GUNNING BEDFORD, Jr. 
JOHN DICKINSON. 
RICHARD BASSETT. 
JACOB BROOM. 



Maryland. 



JAMES McHENRY. 

DANIEL OF ST. THOMAS JENIFER. 

DANIEL CARROLL. 



452 

Connecticut. 

WILLIAM SAMUEL JOHNSON. 
ROGER SHERMAN. 

New York. 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



New Jersey. 

WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 
DAVID BEARLY. 
WILLIAM PATTERSON. 
JONATHAN DAYTON. 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Pennsylvania. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
THOMAS MIFFLIN. 
ROBERT MORRIS. 
GEORGE CLYMER. 
THOMAS FITZSI.MONS. 
JARED INGERSOLL. 
JAMES WILSON. 
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. 



Virginia. 

JOHN BLAIR. 
JA.MES MADISON, Jr. 

North Carolina. 

WILLIAM BLOUNT. 
RICHARD DOBBS SPAIGHT. 
HUGH WILLIAMSON. 

South Carolina. 

JOHN RUTLEDGE. 

CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY. 

CHARLES PINCKNEY. 

PIERCE BUTLER 

Georgia. 

WILLIAM FEW. 
ABRAHAM BALDWIN. 



Attest: 



William J.\ckson, 

Secretary. 



AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 



PROPOSED BY CONGRESS AND RATIFIED BY THE LEGISLATURES OF THE 

SEVERAL STATES. 



Freedom in reli- 
gion, in speech, 
in the press and 
in petition. 



Article I. 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, 
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridging the freedom of 
speech, or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, 
and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 



Article II. 

Keeping and bear- A vvcll-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free 

ing arms. State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be 

infringed. 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 453 

Article III. 

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without Quartering of 
the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be 
prescribed by law. 

Article IV. 



The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, 
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be' 
violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported 
by oath or afifirmation, and particularly describing the place to be 
searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 



Search warrants. 



Article V. 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous 
crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in 
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual 
service in time of war or public danger ; nor shall any person be subject 
for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall 
be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be 
deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall 
private property be taken for public use without just compensation. 



Grand juries and 
trials. 



Article VI. 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a 
speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district 
wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have 
been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and 
cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; 
to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to 
have the assistance of counsel for his defense. 



Speedy and public 
trials. 



Article VII. 

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed jury trial, 
twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact 
tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United 
States than according to the rules of the common law. 



Article VIII. 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor Bail and punish- 
cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. mems. 



454 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Limitation of 
rights. 



Article IX. 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be 
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 



Reserved to ttie 
States 



Cases to be tried. 



Article X. 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, 
nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, 
or to the people. 

Article XI. 

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to- 
extend to any suit, in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against 
one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or 
subjects of any foreign State. 



Choice of presi- 
dent. 



Article XII. 

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot 
for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an 
inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their 
ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person 
voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all 
persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as 
Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they 
shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government 
of the United States, directed to the president of the Senate. The 
President of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of 
Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be 
counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for President, 
shall be the President, if such number be the majority of the whole 
number of electors appointed ; and if no person have such majority, then 
from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three on the 
list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall 
choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the 
President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from 
each State having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a 
member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all 
the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of 
Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice 
shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, 
then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death 
or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having 
the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 455 

if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; 
and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on 
the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President: a quorum for the 
purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of senators, and 
a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no 
person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be 
eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. 

Article XIII. 

SECTION I. 

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for slavery forbidden 
crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within 
the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

SECTION II. 

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

Article XIV. 



SECTION I. 

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to 
the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State 
wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall 
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; 
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, 
without due process of law, nor deny any person within its jurisdiction 
the equal protection of the laws. 



Who citizens, 



SECTION II. 

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States 
according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of 
persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right 
to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and 
Vice-President of the United States, representatives in Congress, the 
executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature 
thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being 
twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way- 
abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of 
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the 
number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male 
citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 



Representatives 
proportioned 
topopnlation. 



456 



OUR COUNTRY. 



Who may not hold 
office. 



SECTION III. 

No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or 
elector of president or vice-president, or hold any office, civil or military, 
under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously 
taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United 
States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or 
judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United 
States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, 
or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a 
vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability. 



SECTION IV. 

PubHc debts. The Validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by 

law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for 
services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion shall not be questioned. 
But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any 
debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the 
United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; 
but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void. 



Power to enforce 
legislation. 



SECTION V. 



The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, 
the provisions of this article. 



Article XV. 



SECTION I. 



Who may vote. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied 

or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, 
color, or previous condition of servitude. 



SECTION II. 



The Congess shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 



The history of our country would be incomplete without Washington's " Farewell 
Address," and Lincoln's " Emancipation Proclamation," the former abounding in wise 
suggestions as to the true welfare of our country, and the latter giving freedom to our 
millions of slaves and freedom to our land forever. 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 457 

THE FAREWELL ADDRESS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, 

FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, ON HIS 
DECLINING A RE-ELECTION. 

Frioids a)id Fcllozv-Citizcns: — • 

The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of 
the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived, when your 
thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that 
important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct 
expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have 
formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is 
to be made. 

I beg you at the same time to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution 
has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the 
relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country ; and that in withdrawing the tender 
of service which silence in my situation might imply, I ,am influenced by no diminution 
of zeal for your future interest ; no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness ; 
but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both. 

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in the office to which your suffrages 
have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, 
and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it 
would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at 
liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from w.hich I had been reluctantly 
drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this previous to the last election, had even 
led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you ; but mature reflection on the 
then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the 
unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon 
the idea. 

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer 
renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety , 
and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that in the 
present circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove of my determination 
to retire. 

The impressions with wliich I first undertook the arduous trust were explained on 
the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say, that I have with good 
intentions contributed toward the organization and administration of the government the 
best e.xertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious, in the 
outset, of the inferiority of any qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still 
more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself ; and 
every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the shade 
of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any 
circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the 
consolation to believe, that while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political 
scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 



458 OUR COUNTRY. 

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of 
my pubhc Hfe, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of 
that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country, for the many honors it has 
conferred upon me ; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported 
me, and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable 
attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. 
If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered 
to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in 
which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances 
sometimes dubious — vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging — in situations in which 
not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism — the constancy 
of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by 
which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me 
to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing wishes that Heaven may continue to 
you the choicest tokens of its beneficence — that your union and brotherly affection may 
be perpetual — that the free constitution which is the work of your hands may be sacredly 
maintained — that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom 
and virtue — that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices 
of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a preservation, and so prudent a use of 
this blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the 
affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end 
but with my life, and the apprehension of danger natural to that solicitude, urge me, 
on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to 
recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments, which are the result of much 
reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the 
permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more 
freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who 
can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an 
encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not 
dissimilar occasion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no 
recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. 

The unity of government which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. 
It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of \-our real independence, the support 
of your tranquility at home and your peace abroad ; of your safety ; of your prosperity ; of 
that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from 
different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices 
employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth ; as this is the point in 
your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be 
most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of 
infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national 
Union to your collective and individual happiness ; that you should cherish a cordial, 
habitual, and immovable attachment to it ; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of 
it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation 
with jealous anxiety ; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 459 

can in any event be abandoned ; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of 
every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the 
sacred ties which now link together the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth 
or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. 
The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always 
exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local 
discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, 
habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed 
together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and 
joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes. 

But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your 
sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your 
interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for 
carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole. 

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal 
laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter great additional 
resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing 
industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, 
sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels 
the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated ; and while it 
contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the national 
navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is 
unequally adapted. The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in 
the progressive improvement of interior communications, by land and water, will more 
and more find a valuable vent for tlie commodities which it brings from abroad or 
manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth 
and comfort — and what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe 
the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, 
influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed 
by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the 
West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, 
or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be 
intrinsically precarious. 

While then every part of our country thus feels the immediate and particular 
interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means 
and efforts, greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from 
external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and what 
is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and 
wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries, not tied 
together by the same government ; which their own rivalship alone would be sufficient 
to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would 
stimulate and embitter. Hence likewise they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown 
military establishments, which under any form of government are inauspicious to liberty, 
and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican liberty. In this sense 



4<JO OUR COUNTKV. 

it is. that your Union ought to be considered as the main prop of your liberty, and that 
the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous 
mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic desire. 
Is there a doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere? Let 
experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We are 
authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of 
governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. 
It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to 
union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its 
impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those, who in 
any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands. 

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union, it occurs as matter of 
serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by 
geographical discriminations — Northern and Southern — Atlantic and Western; whence 
designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local 
interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within 
particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You 
cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings which spring 
from these misrepresentations ; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought 
to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our Western country 
have lately had a useful lesson on this head; they have seen, in the negotiation by the 
executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and 
in the universal satisfaction at the event throughout the United States, a decisive proof 
how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the general 
government, and in the Atlantic States, unfriendly to their interests in regard to the 
Mississippi; they have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with Great 
Britam and that with Spain which secure to them everything they could desire, in 
respect to our foreign relations, toward confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their 
wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the Union by which they 
were procured? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, 
who would sever them from their brethren, and connect them with aliens? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is 
indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate 
substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all 
alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have 
improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a Constitution of Government better 
calculated than your former for an intimate Union, and for the efficacious management 
of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of your own choice, 
uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, 
completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with 
energy and contaming within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim 
to your confidence and your support. Respect foi its authority, compliance with its 
laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of 
true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and 
to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 461 

exists, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly- 
obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to 
establish government, presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established 
government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, 
under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract or 
awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of 
this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to 
give it an artificial and extraordinary force — to put in the place of the delegated will of 
the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the 
community ; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the 
public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, 
rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils 
and modified by mutual interests. 

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then 
answer popular ends, they are hkely, in the course of time and things, to become potent 
engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert 
the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government ; destroying 
afterward the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. 

Toward the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present 
happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular 
oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of 
innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault 
may be to effect in the form of the Constitution alterations wliich will impair the energy 
of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the 
changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as 
necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that 
experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing 
constitution of a country — that facility in changes upon the credit of mere hypothesis 
and opinion, exposes to perpetual change from the endless variety of hypothesis and 
opinion ; and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common 
interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is 
consistent with the perfect security of liberty, is indispensable. Liberty itself will find 
in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. 
It is, indeed, httle else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the 
enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed 
by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of 
person and property. 

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular 
reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a 
more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful 
effects of the spirit of party, generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the 
strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all 
governments more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed ; but in those ot the popular 
form, it is seen in greatest rankness, and it is truly their worst enemy. 



462 OUR COUNTRY. 

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sliarpened by the spirit of 
revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has 
perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at 
length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which 
result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute 
power of an individual, and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more 
able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of 
his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not 
to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party 
are sufificient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and 
restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the public councils, and enfeeble the public 
administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; 
kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and 
insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a 
facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. 
Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of 
another. There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the 
administration of government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within 
certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may 
look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the 
popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. 
From their natural tendency it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for 
every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought 
to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be 
quenched it demands uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, 

instead of warming, it should consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking, in a free country, should 
inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves 
within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of 
one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to 
consolidate the powers of all departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form 
of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness 
to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the 
truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political 
power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each 
the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by 
experiments ancient and modern ; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. 
To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the 
people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular 
wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution 
designates. But let there be no change by usurpation ; for though this, in one instance, 
may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments 
are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any 
partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield. 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 463 

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and 
morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tributes of 
patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these 
firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the 
pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their 
connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, where is the 
security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert 
the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us 
with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without 
religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of 
peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality 
can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. 

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular 
government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free 
government. Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon 
attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? 

Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general 
diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to 
public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One 
method of preserving it, is to use it as sparingly as possible — avoiding occasions of 
expense by cultivating peace ; but remember also that timely disbursements to prepare 
for danger, frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it ; avoiding likewise 
the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous 
exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have 
occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves 
ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is 
necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance 
of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind, that toward the 
payment of debts there must be revenue ; that to have revenue there must be taxes ; 
that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; 
that the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from the selection of the proper objects 
(which is always a choice of difficulties) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid 
construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of 
acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue which the public exigencies may at 
any time dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations, cultivate peace and harmony with 
all: religion and morality enjoin this conduct ; and can it be that good policy does not 
equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a 
great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people 
always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt but that in the 
course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary 
advantage which might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be, that Providence 
has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, 
at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it 
rendered impossible by its vices ? 



464 OUR COUNTRY. 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, 
inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, 
should be excluded ; and that in place of them just and amicable feelings toward all 
should be cultivated. The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or 
an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its 
affection, either of which is sufificient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. 
Antipathy in one nation against another, disposes each more readily to offer insult and 
injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when 
accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, 
envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, 
sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. 
The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through 
passion what reason would reject ; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation 
subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and 
pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations has 
been the victim. 

So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety 
of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary 
common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one 
the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and 
wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to 
concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to 
injure the nation making the concessions, by unnecessarily parting with what ought to 
have been retained ; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in 
the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, 
corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility to 
betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even 
with popularity; gilding with the appearance of a virtuous sense of obligation, a 
commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the 
base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation. 

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are 
particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many 
opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions; to practice the arts of 
sedition, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils! Such an 
attachment of a small and weak, toward a great and powerful nation, dooms the former 
to be the satellite of the latter. Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I 
conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be 
constantly awake ; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the 
most baneful foes of Republican government. Rut that jealousy to be useful must be 
impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of 
a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of 
another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil 
and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the 
intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and 
dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interest. 



GREAT HISTORICAL TAPERS. 465 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our 
commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far 
as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. 
Here let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote 
relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are 
essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to 
implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the 
ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different 
course. If we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period is not far 
ofif when we may defy material injury from external annoyance ; when we may take such 
an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be 
scrupulously respected ; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making 
acquisitions from us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation ; when we may 
choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation ? Why quit our own to stand 
upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of 
Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, 
interest, humor, or caprice? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the 
foreign world, so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it ; for let me not be 
understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the 
maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best 
policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. 
But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary, and would be unwise to extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respectable 
defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary 
emergencies. 

Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, 
humanity, and interest. 

But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand ; neither 
seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of 
things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing 
nothing; establishing, with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to 
define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them, 
conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual 
opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or 
varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it 
is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay 
with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; 
that by such acceptance it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents 
for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. 
There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favors from nation 
to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought 

to discard. 

30 



466 OUR COUNTRY. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, 
I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish — that 
they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running 
the course which has hitherto marked the destiny -of nations. But if I may even flatter 
myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good, that 
they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the 
mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism, 
this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare by which they 
have been dictated 

How far in the discharge of my ofificial duties I have been guided by the principles 
which have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must 
witness to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, 
that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclamation of the 22d of 
April, 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that 
of your representatives in both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has 
continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was 
well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to 
take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, 
I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it with moderation) 
perseverance, and firmness. 

The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary 
on this occasion to detail. I will only observe, that according to my understanding of 
the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has 
been virtually admitted by all 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without any thing more, 
from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on ever}' nation, in cases in 
which it is free to act, to maintain, inviolate the relations of peace and amity toward 
other nations. 

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your 
own reflections and experience. With me, a predominant motive has been to endeavor 
to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to 
progress, without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency which is 
necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes 

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of 
intentional error, I am, nevertheless, too sensible of m\' own defects, not to think it 
probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently 
beseech the Almighty' to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend I shall 
also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view tLem with 
indulgence, and that after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an 
upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself 
must soon be to the mansions of rest. 

Relying on its kindness m this as in other things, and actuateo by that fervent love 
toward it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and liis 
progenitors for several generations I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retieat in 




Q^/'/Y//////// 



'///rrO? : 



GREAT HISTORICAL PAPERS. 467 

which I promise myself to reahze, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in 
the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free 
government — the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of 
our mutual cares, labors and dangers. 

G. Washington. 

United States, 
17th September, 1796. 



PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 
BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Whereas, On the 22d day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United 
States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit : 

"That on the ist day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part 
of a State, the people.whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall 
be then, thenceforward, and forever free ; and the Executive Government of the United 
States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain 
the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of 
them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. 

" That the Executive will, on the first day of January, aforesaid, by proclamation, 
designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, 
shall then be in rebellion against the United States ; and the fact that any State, or the 
people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the 
United States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the 
qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong 
countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people 
thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States." 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of 
the power in me vested as commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States 
in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United 
States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this 
first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 
and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of 
one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate, as the States 
and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion 
against the United States, the following, to wit : 

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, 
JefTerson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, 
Lafourche, St. Mary's, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), 
Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia 
(except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of 
Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, 



468 



OUR COUNTRY. 



including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are, for the 
present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. 

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare 
that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and 
henceforward shall be free ; and that the executive government of the United States, 
including the naval and military authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the 
freedom of said persons. 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all 
violence, unless in necessary self-defense ; and I recommend to them that, in all cases 
when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 

And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable condition, 
will be received into the armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, 
stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the 
Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate juagment of mankind, 
and the gracious favor of Almighty God. 

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal of the 
United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United 
States the eighty-seventh. 



Abraham Lincoln. 



By the President : 

William H. Seward, 

Seciftaiy of Slate. 




THE GOLDEN GATE. 



INHABITANTS BEFORE OUR HISTORICAL 

PERIOD. 



THE MOUND BUILDERS AND THEIR WORKS. 



THE preceding pages contain only the written history of "Our Country," which 
practically begins with the year 1492, the date of the first voyage of Columbus to 
a new world before unknown. Yet there pertains to the preceding period quite a 
variety of very interesting material of a semi-historical character — in part traditional 
and legendary, and in part based upon researches in the languages, customs and 
antiquities of the Mound Builders and Indians. There is no longer doubt that this 
country was many years ago, inhabited by a hardy, energetic, and partly civilized race ; 
and a fuller notice of the facts and of the abundant and deeply interesting literature 
relating to this earlier epoch, seems desirable as a closing chapter of this work. 

Who were the Mound Builders? What was their origin? When and how did 
they live? And when as a people did they pass away, and disappear from the land? 
These are questions that no one can satisfactorily answer, though their works remain to 
testify of their past existence and numbers, of which written history gives us no 
account. 

These works — the mounds which they built — are found in the region lying between 
the Great Lakes on the north and the Gulf of Mexico on the south, and between the 
Mississippi river on the west, and on the east by a line drawn through about the middle 
of New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and extending south so as to include South 
Carolina and the whole of Georgia and Florida. Similar works are here and there 
found outside of these limits, but by far the greater part of them are within this region, 
and especially in Ohio. Those which, from their shape, have been called the 
"Animal Mounds," are found in Wisconsin, as the " Enclosures" are in Ohio, and the 
"Truncated Mounds" in the States further south, though all kinds are found in the 
Ohio Valley where they are more numerous, of larger size, and of more varied 
forms than elsewhere in the United States. 

Taken as a whole these works have been described under two great divisions — 
embankments and mounds — and these again have been divided into several different 
groups. The Embankments or enclosures are generally of earth, rarely of stone, and 
are situated on the level terraces of rivers, on the tops of hills, and on other elevated 

469 



470 



OUR COUNTRY. 



and strong positions, and according to their location are supposed to have been works 
of defense, or, as they have been called, "hill-forts" and "fortified villages." The 
former follow the outline of the hill, sometimes enclosing but part, and sometimes the 
whole hill-top with a wall, while the latter are stretched on the level bank or terrace of 
the river. They are of various shapes and sizes, the square and circle predominating, 
though the two are often united and run into each other, and are generally surrounded 
by walls which are from a few to thirty feet in height from the bottom of the 
ditch below. 

In point of size these works differ greatly, some being not more than fifty feet in 
diameter, while the groups in which several works are united often cover hundreds of 
acres, or, as in case of the works at Newark, Ohio, are scattered over an area of two 
miles square. Some of these works were formerly surmounted by stockades, showing 
they were for defense. The ditch was sometimes on the outside, sometimes 
within the wall, and sometimes on both sides. The material from which these 
embankments were built was taken from the surrounding soil, no hewn or prepared 
stone or mortar being used, and embankments, in part of rough stone, were found only 
in localities where that material is abundant. 

Turning now from the embankments to the second great division — the Mounds — 
they are composed of earth and stone, and vary in location, size, shape and contents. 
Divided according to their forms, they have been classed : 

I. As the temple or triineated mounds, which are conical in shape, commonly 
having graded ways to the top, and often trLincated sides. Their bases are of different 

forms, round, square, 
oval or oblong, and 
all are alike in having 

-i' "j^HSSBi^ :^^B^x ^sOk 'sma^^K' flat or level tops 

^1 ' 1^^^^ ^^ ^.^^^^^B^SBk^^^^SpS^ which are supposed 

to have been sites of 
rude temples for 
worship, or for the 
cabins of their chiefs. 
In height they vary 
from five to ninety 
feet, and at the base 
are from forty feet 
in diameter to, in 
one case, twelve 
acres. Like the 
embankments, they 
are simply heaps of 
earth, some of them 
of immense size, but all thrown up from the earth or material on the spot, 
with apparently no choice or care as to the material, or the order of its deposit. 

2. The ne.xt class, known as "Animal Mounds," from their supposed resemblance 
in form to animals, birds, and even human beings, are more or less irregular, varying in 
height from one to six feet, while their dimensions on the ground are often very large 




'^'**^'-'^^^if5«^^^i--^.-'^^5=-^ ^i 







OBSERVATORY MOUND, NEWARK WORKS. 



INHABITANTS BEFORE OUR HISTORICAL PERIOD. 47I 

Some in human form are over a hundred feet in length ; quadrupeds have bodies and 
tails each from fifty to two hundred feet long; birds have wings of a hundred feet; 
lizard mounds are two and even four hundred feet in length; straight and curved lines 
of embankments extend over a thousand feet, and the forms of serpents are equally 
extensive. Mounds of this class are common in Wisconsin, and are also found in 
Ohio and Georgia. They are usually constructed of earth, stones being rarely used, 
except perhaps in Georgia, where some bird-shaped mounds are constructed entirely of 
that material. 

3. The third class of mounds consists of conical truncates that are scattered over 
the whole area which has been mentioned, and are far more numerous than all the 
others combined. They are generally round or oval, and vary in height from a few 
inches to several feet, and in diameter from three or four to three hundred feet. A 
height of from three to thirty feet, and a diameter at the base of from fifteen to fifty 
feet, would include a large proportion of them. Though alike in form, they difTer 
widely in location, being found on the highest hills, and in the lowest valleys, alone and 
in groups, and in connection with the hill-forts or fortified villages, of which they seem 
to have been parts. Most of them are of earth, though stone mounds or cairns are not 
uncommon, and in Florida they are often made almost entirely of shells. 

This is believed to be a fair statement of all that is known of mounds, as mounds, 
without regard to their contents, or what is known of them historically. It is taken 
from Force and Carr, the latter of whom takes his account almost literally from Bancroft 
whose "Summary of the results of the Explorations of Squier, Lapham, and others," 
he says, "is just and comprehensive." The various groups of these structures, 
showing but little difference among themselves, consist of numberless mounds and 
circumvallations, fifteen hundred of the latter and ten thousand of the former being 
found in Ohio alone, to say nothing of those in other parts of the country. 

Their uses and the objects for which they were built vary according to the kind 
of the structures. Some seem to have been for defense against enemies, as the 
stockades and trenches, the extent and elevation of which and the fact that they were 
provided with wells or cisterns for water, show that they were for protection against the 
possible attack of foes. Some seem to have been for the purpose of worship, whatever 
the form of that worship might have been. And some evidently were burial places, and 
when of great extent were cemeteries, where for generations the dead were laid at rest, 
with the utensils, personal ornaments, and weapons of warfare which among savage 
tribes are generally buried with those to whom in life they belonged, and thought in 
some sense to go with them to the spirit land. 

The stone heaps or cairns were apparently to commemorate some notable event, 
some treaty of peace, some victory over foes, the settlement of some village, or were 
thrown up as landmarks or memorials over the dead. The bone mounds were burial 
places on a larger scale, in which, after battle, the numbers that were slain were laid in 
tiers, one above another, and a high mound raised over them. In such mounds large 
numbers of skeletons have been found, and in many cases there were bones scattered on 
the surface, and even projecting from the sides. 

The trjtncatcd or temple mounds were apparently arranged for the cabins of the 
chiefs and the dwellings of their attendants, or as the beginnings of their villages, and 
also as places of worship. These larger mounds were elevated in location and had at 



472 OUR COUNTRY. 

one point a graded way easy of approach to the top, while at every other point the sides 
were so steep as to be difficult of ascent, and so, easily defended from enemies. 

Whether these various mounds were built by the ancestors of the modern Indians, 
or by some prehistoric people that have passed away leaving no descendants on the 
continent and no evidence of their existence but the monuments they have left, is still 
an unsettled question. But whoever may have built them, they must have been erected 
many ages ago. The growth of trees upon these mounds gives one indication of 
the times when they must have been built. Squier and Davis mention a tree six 
hundred years old on the great mound at Point Creek; Barrandt tells of another at least 
six hundred years old on one of the mounds of the upper Missouri ; and Dr. Hildreth 
speaks of another eight hundred years old on a mound at Marietta, Ohio. Some of the 
works then, it would seem, must have been abandoned at least six or eight hundred, and 
some think a thousand years ago, but whether by a people that were conquered or 
exterminated, or by ancestors of the modern Indians, is still a question not fully settled. 

Whoever the Mound Builders may have been, it is evident they were a numerous 
people, for their mounds and enclosures are found by thousands scattered through the 
various States, from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and from central New York, 
Pennsylvania, the Carolinas and Georgia on the east, to the Mississippi on the west. 
They were probably divided into clans or tribes, for their cemeteries extended and in 
layers, as some of them are, seem to indicate the burial of large numbers at a time, 
as if of those slain in great conflicts, and some of their connected mounds or defensive 
works are. in communication with each other by signal stations at conspicuous points, 
forming lines of notification and defense for great distances. As one of many instances 
of this, a mound at Norwood, back of Cincinnati, commands a view through a 
depression of the hills eastwardly to a mound in the valley of the little Miami river, 
and northwardly through a valley and low lands to similar works at Hamilton, and 
then by a series of mounds westward to the fort at the mouth of the great Miami river. 
There is also a series of these signal mounds extending a distance of over one hundred 
miles along the Scioto, from the northern boundary of Franklin County to the Ohio 
river; thus alarm signals could easily have been transmitted by the Mound Builders 
through the entire length of the valley to their works at Portsmouth. Such arrangements 
show preparations for danger and for giving alarm, if need be, to friends or confederates 
at a distance, that they might be put on their guard against foes, or called promptly in 
aid of those who were in danger. 

The Mound Builders were also an enterprising, and more or less a trading people, 
far in advance of the Indian tribes who succeeded them, and who, it is believed by 
some, are their descendants. Modern investigations show that the mining of native 
copper was carried on by these ancient people to an extraordinary extent. In a single 
district of eighteen miles square on Isle Royal, near the northern shore of Lake Superior, 
more ore was taken out by them by their crude processes than has been taken out in 
the last twenty years from the largest single mine on the lake, with all the aid of 
modern machinery. There is no trace of dwellings of any kind near the ancient 
excavations or mines. But fragments of native copper from which pieces have been 
chipped off, have been found in the mounds in Ohio. The miners'evidently visited the 
mines in summer, and left when winter closed the lake, and then came back again when 
spring had melted the ice and re-opened navigation. In the frail boats which they used. 



INHABITANTS BEFORE OUR HISTORICAL PERIOD. 



473 



they must have coasted hundreds of miles along the shores of the lake with their 
heavy loads, or without compass must have crossed its wide and often boisterous 
surface, in either case, showing their enterprise and persevering courage. 

They could not in the modern sense be called a commercial people, though they 
manifestly exchanged their various products from different parts of the country. 
Copper implements from the North found their way to the South, and sea shells were 
taken from the coast to the interior. Mica was carried from the Alleghany Mountains 
to the valley of the Ohio. Flint chips and implements were taken from Ohio to Illinois, 
and fragments of obsidian found their way to Ohio from the Rocky Mountains and New 
Mexico. Stone-pipes found in the Scioto valley so faithfully represented the sea-cow 
that the makers must have been acquainted with that animal which now is nowhere 







WORKS AT MARIETTA, OHIO. 



found in the United States except on the coast of Florida. One pipe represents a bird 
which is an inhabitant of the West Indies and South America. Such facts show 
communication between different parts of the country, and the interchange of 
commodities of different kinds and from different regions. 

The carving of the Mound Builders, as seen in their pipes and ornaments, exhibits 
greater skill and artistic taste than are found in the works of modern Indians. Native 
copper has been found with its outer surface plated with silver, not hammered on, but 
apparently united by fusion. In a large collection of copper instruments belonging to 
the Wisconsin Historical Society, one or more specimens were thought to have been 
cast, not hammered, though the casting is doubted. { Skill of a different kind is seen in 
the embankments of the Mound Builders, especially in the Scioto valley, where the 
squares, circles, octagons, and ellipses are found to be mathematically accurate, showing 



474 



OUR COUNTRY. 



a knowledge of mathematics and engineering. Circles of more than a thousand feet 
and one of them seventeen hundred feet in diameter, show that their builders had some 
means of accurately measuring angles, and the fact that so many of these circles are 
precisely a thousand and eighty feet on the side is proof that they had some fixed 
standard of measurement. All these facts show a condition of life, and a kind and 
degree of knowledge and taste unlike those which we associate with our Indians, and so 
far go to show that they were a people different from and superior to them, or that if 
they were ancestors of the modern Indians, then the latter must have been gradually 
sinking in the scale of civilization. 




